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258th Roman Pontiff
Benedict XV
BENEDICTVS Quintus Decimus
Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa
258th Successor of St Peter · 1914–1922 · Sardinia · b. Pegli, Kingdom of Sardinia
1914
Elected
1922
Reign ended
8 years
Length
20th
Century
The Life
Subject of the Kingdom of Sardinia, later becoming an Italian citizen. Credited for intervening for peace during World War I. Issued the 1917 Code of Canon Law; supported the missionaries in Maximum illud.
Remembered by Benedict XVI as a "prophet of peace". Reversed the betting ban on the outcome of papal elections imposed by Gregory XIV.
Portrait: Nicola Perscheid / Wikimedia Commons