Biography of Blessed Pius IX

[Sacramentalist]

I’m looking for a book (in English) that one might well consider a “definitive” or “authoritative” biography of Blessed Pius IX, something analogous to what George Wiegel wrote about Pope John Paul II.

Any suggestions?

 

[Contarini]

I don’t know, but Owen Chadwick wrote an excellent book on the 19th-century Popes generally, and he has a lengthy account of Pius IX. The book is called A History of the Popes, 1830-1914. Chadwick is an Anglican, but the link I’ve provided will take you to a very positive review of the book in First Things by the Catholic scholar Russell Hittinger. I myself found that Chadwick’s account gave me a much more sympathetic understanding of Pius than I’d had previously, though he’s not uncritical. Chadwick does a very good job of explaining the social and political pressures that caused the Popes of the 19th century to act as they did (particularly the persistent efforts of secular European countries to dominate the Church).

Edwin