Pope Pius XI Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

PIUS XI, born Achille Ratti in 1857, was Pope from 1922 until his death in 1938. A scholar with three doctorates from Gregorian University in Rome, he was also an avid and skilled mountain climber. A theological conservative, Pius XI was more flexible than his recent predecessors in dealings with governments. With the Lateran Treaty (1929), he normalized relations with the Italian state and secured recognition of the Vatican's independence. He supported Franco's cause in the Spanish Civil War but abandoned support for monarchical restoration in France and strongly opposed Naziism and communism. Pius XI prepared an encyclical denouncing anti-Semitism as unchristian, but he died in September 1938 under what some consider suspicious circumstances, and the text of the document has never been published.