He was born in the Venetian region in 1835, was ordained priest in 1858, was appointed Bishop of Mantua in 1884 and a cardinal and patriarch of Venice in 1893. In 1903 he was elected Pope to succeed Leo XIII. During his pontificate he encouraged the practice of frequent Holy Communion, and the admission of young children to this Sacrament, set about a reform of church liturgy (and especially music, seeking a return to a ‘purer’ model for worship, including the encouragement of Gregorian Chant), revised the Code of Canon Law and redirected the work of ‘Catholic Action’, in order to inspire a greater spiritual awareness in the workplace and in politics. He was faced with the great Church-State crisis in France (the laicisation of the State, the expulsion of religious orders and closure of church schools) and encouraged French Catholics to let go of some traditional rights, including property rights, for the sake of independent Christian witness. He encouraged a theological reformation in the Church, with a stress on the work of St. Thomas Aquinas in particular; his condemnation of the so-called ‘Modernist’ movement unfortunately spread, at the hands of subordinates, from the reining in of maverick theologians to the suppression of some orthodox ones. In his last days he sought in vain to avert the First World War, and died on August 20th., 1914. His search for simplicity and poverty brought him the reputation of sainthood; he was in fact canonised in 1954.