Leo XIII

A Light from Heaven

William Kiefer

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781839744969
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A biography of Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903), who served as head of the Catholic Church from February 20, 1878 to his death on July 20, 1903. At age 93, Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci was the oldest reigning pope, and had the third-longest confirmed pontificate, behind those of Pius IX (his immediate predecessor) and John Paul II.
Pope Leo XIII was well-known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, he outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights of property and free enterprise, opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. He influenced Mariology of the Catholic Church and promoted both the rosary and the scapular.
Leo XIII issued a record of eleven papal encyclicals on the rosary earning him the title as the "Rosary Pope". In addition, he approved two new Marian scapulars and was the first pope to fully embrace the concept of Mary as Mediatrix. He was the first pope to have never held any control over the Papal States, after they had been dissolved by 1870.

CHAPTER ONE—YOUTH AND STUDIES

On a bitterly cold March 2, 1810, Vincent Joachim Raphael Louis Pecci, the sixth of seven children, was born of noble and extremely religious parents. His native village of Carpineto, once the outpost of a warring anti-Roman tribe, now numbered some five thousand souls. Vincent Joachim’s father, Colonel Count Louis Pecci,{1} and his mother, Anna Prosperi-Buzi of Cori came of a long and distinguished ancestry.

The history of the Pecci family at Carpineto dates back to 1531, when Antonio, the Pope’s direct ancestor, and a friend of Pope Clement VII came there from the city of Siena.{2} Vincent Joachim belongs to the eleventh generation of this branch.{3} As jurists, prelates, and magistrates, the Peccis of Carpineto had a love for the public weal and were also known for their truly religious spirit.

Carpineto was in the diocese of Anagni, and at that time was twelve miles from the main highway between Rome and Naples.{4} It was reached by an almost continuous ascent, for the town was built on a cliff nearly two thousand feet above sea level.

The town itself, at first sight, appeared confusedly in the distance, like a crag over a precipice where fell shadows of houses, belfries, and ramparts in ruins. Close to the town the valley changed into a narrow gorge. High above, Carpineto spread picturesquely on the eastern slope of the Lepini hills, while to the right rose the Augustinian convent (later entirely rebuilt in Gothic style by Leo XIII). From the distant summit of Semprevisa, over five thousand feet high, both the Adriatic and the Mediterranean can be discerned.

The houses of the town were grouped on two levels. On the higher level, and the nearer to Mt. Capreo, stood the Pecci mansion and eventually the church of St. Leo, an edifice in Greek style built by Leo XIII. On the other elevation stood a ruined castle-prison. Between and all around these two points the town was clustered. Among the houses narrow steep streets, or rather lanes, were drawn like little paths, for the most part giving the appearance of crooked stairways. Along these lanes swarms of children in brightly hued clothes shouted and played, while at the doors old women spun flax and hemp. Robust mountaineers, in knee breeches and leggings, passed along leading donkeys laden with wood or farm produce. Young girls would carry on their heads the classic copper pitchers which they had filled at the nearest well.

Today the town has changed in building conditions, but little else. Vincent Joachim brought about this change himself once he became pope. Many were the gifts granted by Leo XIII to his native Carpinetans. Besides the new parish church of St. Leo, erected and endowed by him, he had St. John’s and St. James’s churches completely rebuilt, and the collegiate church adorned with stuccoes and paintings suitable to its architectural excellence. The white marble statue of Leo XIII presented by the famous Franco-American Count Loubat{5} of New York is today a focal point for visitors. The Pope also built at Carpineto a large school for girls, which was entrusted to the French Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament; a home for the aged and the sick, conducted by the Belgian Brothers of Mercy; a new convent for the Franciscans; and, in the Pecci mansion, a meteorological observatory, a museum of natural history and ethnography; and, adjoining the mansion a very fine library. Much more than points of interest, these buildings offer a fine indication of the character of Pope Leo XIII.

When only two days old, Vincent Joachim Pecci was baptized in the private chapel of the Pecci mansion by special dispensation, because of the bitter cold March winter.{6}

The baptismal register at the cathedral of Anagni shows the following record. “In the year of our Lord 1810, on the fourth day of March, at the sixteenth hour the very Rev. Michael Catoni, Canon of the most holy cathedral church of Anagni, baptized, by permission of the undersigned, a child born two days before, to the most illustrious Lord Louis Pecci and Lady Anna Prosperi, residents in this parish of St. Nicholas (Carpineto), in the names of Vincent Joachim Raphael Louis. The sponsors were the most illustrious and most Rev. Joachim Fosi, Bishop of Anagni, who appointed as his representative the Rev. Hyacinth Canon Caporossi, from whom I have received his authority in due form; and the most illustrious Lady Candida Pecci Calderozzi. In witness, whereof, I, Zepherin Cina, vicar of this parish, place my signature and the seal of the church.”{7}

One can only surmise what the child’s early years were like in such peaceful religious surroundings. He was always called Vincent by his mother, who had a great devotion to St. Vincent Ferrer. Only a considerable time after her death did he sign his name, Joachim, the name given him by his godfather, the bishop of Anagni.

The future Pope’s brother, Joseph, long afterward wrote of their mother, “She was a woman devoted to the poor and to good works. She was ever doing something for the needy. In the years in which the harvests had failed, she had bread baked and distributed at her door, or sent to the infirm and the sick. She was also the soul of all works of charity and zeal in the town and its neighborhood. But this external activity did not make her neglect anything that concerned the care of her family and the education of her children. She took too much trouble upon herself and consequently shortened her days.”{8}

The Countess was the perfect strong woman of the Bible, who brought up her seven children with great love and in accordance with her own extremely strict principles. As for their father, Count, and Colonel, Louis, he was a severe but generous man who loved most tenaciously his family and the noble things of life.{9} He was conscious of the fact his house was the only noble one in the town, and would not tolerate anything that was not in accord with patriarchal living. His love of literature, wholesome curiosity for science, and the cultivation of the arts, for which his ancestors had so often been noted, he esteemed as the noblest occupations of a gentleman’s life.

When the Count recognized the rare intellect of his fifth and sixth children, he made up his mind to do all in his power to provide them with the best possible education. Vincent was more reflective and more studious than Joseph, but both boys had imbibed a great sense of duty. Both gave reason to hope for the best, but that best Carpineto could not give. It was finally decided that the two boys attend the Jesuit college at Viterbo. In the autumn of 1817 the two of them, hardly more than nine and seven, were brought to Rome, where they spent a year with their uncle Antonio Pecci, who then escorted them to Viterbo.

They found masters worthy of the former renown of the great Society which had been restored by Pius VII only four years before.{10} Nearly all the students belonged to the Italian aristocracy, and the disasters of the Revolution{11} had made them grow up in the school of adversity at home. In these surroundings the intellectual and moral training of the Pecci brothers acquired marvelous development.

At the age of twelve Vincent Joachim was already adept in Latin versification and in the year 1822, he complimented the Jesuit provincial, Father Vincent Pavani, at an academic session of the college, with an elegant Latin quatrain suggested by the coincidence that both bore the same name.

Ad Vincenzo Pavani, S.J.

Nomine Vincenti, quo tu, Pavane, vocaris,

Parvulus atque infans Peccius ipse vocor.

Quas es virtutes magnas, Pavane, secutas,

O! utinam possem Peccius ipse sequi!

Dear namesake, Vincent, from my birthday, too,

Even as Pavani, Pecci bears that name;

Oh, that Pavani’s wealth of merit, too,

Following that Vincent’s light may Pecci claim.{12}

Such was the beginning of Vincent’s Latin poetry which one day would include hymns in the Breviary. Poetry was a joy to him. It offered beauty and a challenge to write. In fact, this hobby remained even to his deathbed.

On August 22 of the same year the delegate to Viterbo, Msgr. Carmin Lolli,{13} wrote to the Countess Pecci, “On Saturday last I presided over a philosophical discussion which took place in the church of the Jesuit Fathers, in honor of His Eminence, Cardinal Galleffi. On that occasion I distributed the prizes to the students of the college, and I had the consolation and joy of delivering the first prize for rhetoric to our dear Joseph, and the second prize for humanities to our dear Vincent.”{14}

As a boy of just eleven, he wrote this letter to his mother; it is the first of the known letters of Vincent Pecci.{15}

Viterbo, Mar. 11, 1821

Dear Madam and very dear Mother,

Your gifts have pleased both me and my brother very much. This mark of your attachment can only make us strengthen our own for you, as it is our duty to do so, in proportion to your desire. Yes, we will do this, but we need your prayers to help us in order that we give you full satisfaction, so grant us those prayers.

For some time you have kept us in hope that you would come and embrace us, but the moment has not yet arrived. Imagine how sad your absence makes us. Images of saints, whoever they may be, will always be pleasing to us, but the prettier they are the more we shall like them.

Remember me to papa and others. Give me your blessing and let me kiss your hand with tender affection, and sign myself,

your most affectionate son,

Vincent.

On September 11, Msgr. Lolli wrote again to Vincent Joachim’s parents and said prophetically, “I was more than persuaded that you, Madam, would feel greatly consoled, as would also the Colonel and your whole family, on learning of the progress made by your dear children in their studies. If God preserves their health, these two boys will become the honor and the glory of their name, their home and their country.”{16}

A classmate of Vincent’s said that they had often changed places at the head of the class.{17} When his rival was successful, Vincent seemed deeply impressed and showed his disappointment. This classmate years later wrote to the Civilta Cattolica about Vincent and himself while at Viterbo. In part the letter reads: “I can bear witness to the fact that while yet at Viterbo he won our admiration not only by his quick intell...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DECLARATION
• DEDICATION
• INTRODUCTION
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CHAPTER ONE-YOUTH AND STUDIES
• CHAPTER TWO-GOVERNOR AND NUNCIO
• CHAPTER THREE-BISHOP AND CARDINAL
• CHAPTER FOUR-TEACHER AND PASTOR
• CHAPTER FIVE-CONCLAVE AND CORONATION
• CHAPTER SIX-DIPLOMAT AND SHEPHERD
• CHAPTER SEVEN-PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE
• CHAPTER EIGHT-THE CHURCH EAST AND WEST
• CHAPTER NINE-CONDITIONS OF EUROPE
• CHAPTER TEN-NATURE OF THE STATE
• CHAPTER ELEVEN-THE CITY OF GOD AND OF MAN
• CHAPTER TWELVE-LIBERTY AND SLAVERY
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN-LABOR AND THE WORKING CLASS
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN-AMERICA AND THE POPE
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN-THE POPE OF THE ROSARY
• CHAPTER SIXTEEN-BIBLICAL STUDIES AND THE EAST
• CHAPTER SEVENTEEN-ENGLISH UNITY
• CHAPTER EIGHTEEN-THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT
• CHAPTER NINETEEN-LEO-THE MAN AND THE POPE
• CHAPTER TWENTY-THE GLORIOUS TRIUMPH
• CHRONOLOGY OF POPE LEO XIII
• BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SELECTIONS