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Pius IX. And His Time

Chapter 1: Preface.
By Æneas MacDonell Dawson
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About This Book

A detailed biography traces the life and career of the long-reigning pontiff, from modest upbringing through early ecclesiastical service, charitable work and overseas missions, to high administrative posts in Rome. It follows his pastoral reforms, financial and institutional management, theological leadership, and promotion of doctrines, as well as his encounter with political upheaval that stripped the papacy of temporal territories. The narrative balances personal piety and administrative skill with the turbulent public events of his era, examining how his decisions shaped church governance, doctrinal definitions, missionary activity, and relations between religious and secular authorities.

[pg i]

Preface.

The history of Pius IX. will always be read with interest. His Pontificate was, indeed, eventful. In no preceding age were the annals of the Church so grandly illustrated.

The spiritual sovereignty, “with which,” to use the words of a British statesman, “there is nothing on this earth that can at all compare,” was crowned with surpassing glory. Doctrines which, hitherto, had been open to theological discussion, were ascertained and pronounced to be in accordance with the belief of all preceding Christian ages. The Church was enabled, through the labors of her Chief and the zeal of her Priesthood, to extend vastly the place of her tent. The life of Pius IX. himself was a marvel and a glory. None of his predecessors, not even Peter, attained to his length of days.

On the other hand, the venerable Pontiff, and, together with him, the Catholic people, were doomed to behold and lament the loss of the time-honored patrimony of St. Peter. The Papacy, however, unlike all temporal sovereignties, was able to sustain so great a loss. More ancient than its temporal power, it still survives; “not a mere antique, but in undiminished vigor.”

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