Pope Benedict XV: life, pontificate, and Marian devotion (1914-1922)

Who was Pope Benedict XV?

Giacomo Paolo Battista della Chiesa (1854-1922), elected Pope on September 3, 1914, with the name Benedict XV, governed the Church during the First World War and the first years of the postwar period. His pontificate (1914-1922), situated between the reign of Pius X and that of Pius XI, was marked by intense diplomatic activity on behalf of peace, by the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law, and by the profound Marian devotion that he impressed on all his documents. Born in Genoa into an aristocratic family, he was trained in the diplomatic school of Cardinal Rampolla and appointed Archbishop of Bologna by Pius X in 1907, being created Cardinal only three months before his papal election.

The “Pope of peace” and the Great War

Benedict XV was elected twelve days after the beginning of the First World War. His “Peace Note” of August 1, 1917, proposing an immediate armistice, international arbitration, progressive disarmament, and the renunciation of war reparations, was refused by all the belligerent powers, but anticipated the principles of the UN by decades. The pope called the war “the suicide of civilized Europe”. His humanitarian action – support for prisoners of war, exchange of the sick, creation of information networks about the missing – was recognized by governments on all sides of the conflict.

The Mariology of Benedict XV: Inter Sodalicia (1918)

The most significant Mariological document of Benedict XV is the apostolic letter Inter Sodalicia (March 22, 1918), addressed to Cardinal Boggiani on the Association of Our Lady of Sorrows. In it, Benedict XV affirms that Mary “by her suffering and death, by her voluntary immolation… expiated the transgressions of men and appeased divine justice, so that she can rightly be called the Reparatrix of the lost world”. This formulation – one of the most explicit of the papal Magisterium on Mary’s compassio – was extensively cited by the theologians of Co-Redemption throughout the twentieth century. It associates Mary with the sacrificial oblation of Calvary and constitutes a significant step in the development of the doctrine of Mary’s Mediation.

Benedict XV, Fatima, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

In 1917, the same year as the apparitions of Fatima, Benedict XV added to the Litany of Our Lady the invocation “Queen of Peace” (May 1917) and made constant appeals to the Virgin that she might intercede for the end of the war. Although he did not pronounce officially on the apparitions of Fatima during his pontificate, he explicitly linked devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the need for peace – a convergence that later Mariologists would recognize as prophetically significant. The encyclical Fausto Appetente Die (1921), for the seventh centenary of the death of Saint Dominic, reaffirmed the Rosary as a privileged instrument of peace and Marian devotion.

Marian documents of Benedict XV

The Code of Canon Law of 1917

One of the most enduring achievements of Benedict XV was the promulgation of the Codex Iuris Canonici in 1917, the first systematic code of canon law in the history of the Church, the fruit of a work begun by Pius X and completed under his pontificate. The code, organized in 2,414 canons, remained in force until 1983, when John Paul II promulgated the new code. Benedict XV also promulgated the apostolic letter Maximum Illud (1919), reforming missionary activity and insisting on the formation of a local clergy – freeing the missions from European colonial imperialism.

Legacy and cause of beatification

Benedict XV died on January 22, 1922, at the age of 67, of pneumonia. His death was universally mourned, including by non-Catholic governments. His pontificate was marked by a rare evangelical coherence: he refused the nationalist rhetoric of every side, defended the dignity of the defeated peoples, and was the first pope to send diplomatic representatives to almost every country in the world. Inter Sodalicia (1918) remains his most cited Mariological contribution, as a link between Ad Diem Illum of Pius X (1904) and the definitions of the Second Vatican Council on Mary in the Church. The cause of beatification has been open since 1972.

Delve deeper into your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Our Lady of Fatima, Marian apparitions and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.