THE POPE IN EXILE PIUS IX (Giovanni M. Mastai-Ferretti, 1792-1878, Pope from 1846 who proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception and whose Vatican Council formulated the Dogma of Papal Infallibility)

Fine Letter Signed to FERDINAND II, (1810-1859, from 1830 King of the Two Sicilies), in Latin with translation, saying "Your Royal Majesty well knows how joyful We were at the happy delivery of Our most dear daughter in Christ MARIA THERESIA, Your August Spouse", (1816-1867, his second wife, 1837, elder daughter of Karl, Duke of Teschen), "who on the 2nd of this month gave birth to a baby Princess at Gaeta, for nothing pleased Us more than to baptize the Little Girl next day in the Cathedral Basilica of Gaeta", thanking him for "Your most kind Letter of the 8th of the same month", and begging "God, the insanely generous giver of all good things, that He may wish ever more propitiously to grant Your Majesty, the Little Girl and her Mother all prosperity and health", ending with, "as an auspice of this divine assistance", his Apostolic Benediction on all the family, 1 side folio, address on conjugate leaf, Gaeta, 12th August "in the 4th Year of Our Pontificate",

Written from the Pope's place of safety in the Kingdom of Naples, following his escape on 24th November 1848 by a .back door of the Vatican, disguised as an ordinary priest, during the revolutionary fervour. In 1849 President Louis Napoleon of France sent General Oudinot to recover Rome and the Papal States for Pius, who returned to the city on 12th April 1850.
The daughter, MARIA PIA, married in 1869 as his first wife, ROBERTO I (1848-1907, last reigning Duke of Parma, 1854-1859), in the Sistine Chapel, Pius IX again conducting the ceremony. She was the mother of the first twelve of Roberto's twenty-four children.

Item Date:  1849

Stock No:  55681      £1750

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