Blessed Pope Pius IX, Count Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti
ARMS: Quarterly: 1st and 4th: Azure a lion rampant or crowned with a count’s coronet proper and standing upon a sphere or; 2nd and 3rd: bendy gules and argent.
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS:
Source for blazon: “Heraldry in the Vatican”, Jacques Cardinal Martin, Van Duren, Gerrards Cross, 1987, pages 192-193 & Plate XIX. Blazon by Dwyer Quentin Wedvick reworked by John Hamilton Gaylor.
Pope Blessed Pius IX was born Count Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti on 13 May 1792, became Pope in 1846, and had, we believe, the longest reign as Pope after St. Peter, presided over the loss of the Papal States and so directed the Church to spiritual matters alone, led an absolutely exemplary life even as Pope and died on 7 February 1878.
His encyclical “Ubi Primum” defined Mary as Mediatrix of Salvation. In 1854, he defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. The Pope’s encyclical of 1864 “Quanta Cura” included his “Syllabus of Errors” condemning 80 propositions as heresy indicating his opposition to modernism in all its forms.
Pius IX also convened the First Vatican Council in 1868 which defined the dogma of papal infallibility. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
Wedvick Armorial, 065b, Pius IX,
2008 0727
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