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| Bl. Pope Pius IX, ora pro nobis |
When the Papal States fell on September 20, 1870 he became a prisoner in the Vatican. Refusing to move outside it's walls and give legitimacy to the new and artificial "Kingdom of Italy.”
This policy remained until Pius XI, with the signing of Lateran treaty in 1929.
Despite several hardships, including surviving revolution and exile in 1849 and the fall of his temporal power in 1870, Bl. Pius IX endured.
He proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, defined the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, and led the First Vatican Council.
He was also a huge opponent of liberalism and communism. He imposed the Syllabus of Errors and spoke against these heresies in many of his encyclicals.
Bl. Pius IX was a father figure for all of Christendom, especially to his Zouaves whom overwhelmingly described him as "fatherly, gentile, kind, and caring.”
Let us pray for the intercession of Bl. Pope Pius IX, that we may obtain the faith, fidelity, and piety that his most loyal Papal Zouaves had for his office and the true faith.
Bl. Pope Pius IX, ora pro nobis!
By Brendan Cassell (Papal Zouave History @PapalZouaveUS)
