Pope Leo XIII

Who was Pope Leo XIII?

Pope Leo XIII, born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in 1903. He was the oldest pope, and had the third longest pontificate, behind Pope Pius IX and Pope John Paul II. He is the most recent pontiff to date to take the pontifical name of "Leo" upon being elected as pope.

He is well known for intellectualism, the development of social teachings with his famous encyclical Rerum Novarum and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. He influenced Roman Catholic Mariology and promoted both the rosary and the scapular. He issued a record eleven encyclicals on the rosary, approved two new Marian scapulars and was the first pope to fully embrace the concept of Mary as mediatrix. He was the first pope excluding his immediate predecessor to not hold any control over the Papal States, after they were dissolved by 1870.

Leo XIII died on July 20, 1903 and was briefly buried in the grottos of Saint Peter's Basilica before his remains were later transferred to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.