Born in 1792, Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferreti was Elected Pope on June 16th 1846. His pontificate, the subject of the biographical study, lasted thirty-two years, the longest after that St Peter himself.

To the english reaer Blessed pius IX is best known for the restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy, the convening of the first Vatican Council, and for the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate conception and of papal infallibility.

Elevated to the Papacy amid the historica l backdrop of turmoil and revolution in Italy and Europe, he was also to play a cantral role in the drama of the resorgimiento that led to the creation of a united Italy. He was quick to identify the threat posed not just to the Church, but to the whole foundation of society and morality, by the essientially anti-christian revolutionary masonic movemnt, and his steadfast defence of the Papacy itself, of the social sovereignty of Christ and of the truth of the Catholic doctrine preserved both Church and Papacy through decades of revolution, exile, occupation and persecution.

publication of the English translation of Roberto Mattei's acclaimed study of pius IX marks the 150th anniversary of the Pope's solemn definition of the Dogma of our Lady's Immaculate Conception