Sunday, March 10, 2013

Papal Trivia . . .

There is, of course, nothing trivial about a papal election but throughout the Church's history, there have been some interesting bits of trivia pertaining to the papal lineage.

The longest the Church has ever been without a pope was 1268-1271 when Gregory X was finally elected. This election was taking so long that the faithful finally put the cardinals on a diet of bread and water which seems to get the voting back on track!

The first Roman to be elected pope was St. Anacletus in 76.

The last Roman elected to be pope was Pius XII in 1939.

The first Italian pope was St. Linus in 67.

The last conclave held outside Rome was in Venice in 1800. At that conclave, Pius VII was elected. The reason the conclave was held in Venice was because that period of time was marked by uncertainty for the Pope and Roman Catholic Church following the invasion of the Papal States and abduction of Pius VI under the French Directory.

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