Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII died exactly 50 years ago. Born at Rome on March 2, 1876, Eugenio Pacelli was ordained in 1899. On May 13, 1917, the day of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, he was consecrated Titular Archbishop of Sardis, and after serving as Papal Nuncio in Bavaria and Berlin, he was created Cardinal in 1929.

After the death of Pope Pius XI on February 10, 1939, Cardinal Pacelli was elected Pope on March 2, being his 63rd birthday, and chose the name of Pius XII.

On November 1, 1950, he proclaimed the Assumption of Our Lady as a dogma of Faith.

He canonised 32 saints, among them the young Domenico Savio, Maria Goretti and Gemma Galgani, the Swiss national hero Nicholas of Flueli (Bruderklaus) and the Ecuadorian Mary-Anne Parades y Flores.

This great Pope died at Castelgandolfo, on October 9, 1958, and lies buried in the crypt of the Vatican Basilica.