Pius XI

American  

noun

1. Achille Ratti, 1857–1939, Italian ecclesiastic: pope 1922–39.

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Pius XI British  

noun

1. original name Achille Ratti. 1857–1939, Italian ecclesiastic; pope (1922–39). He signed the Lateran Treaty (1929), by which the Vatican City was recognized as an independent state. His encyclicals condemned Nazism and Communism

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Example Sentences

In 1931, Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical “Quadragesimo Anno,” or “40th Anniversary,” commemorating Rerum Novarum’s release with expanded teachings on labor and how “the worker’s human dignity in it must be recognized.”

From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2025

“Among historians, my piece I think will be fairly explosive,” said Dr. Kertzer, whose book “The Pope and Mussolini,” about Pius’s predecessor, Pius XI, won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2015.

From New York Times • Aug. 28, 2020

Pius – whose birth name was Eugenio Pacelli – was Vatican secretary of state under his predecessor, Pope Pius XI, and a former papal nuncio, or envoy, to Germany.

From The Guardian • Mar. 1, 2020

Kertzer, a professor at Brown University, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in biography for his book “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe.”

From Seattle Times • Aug. 16, 2018

The coat of arms of Pope Pius XI was engraved on to the ceiling, flanked by four chandeliers.

From BBC • May 17, 2016