Pope Pius VI


Pius VI
Bishop of Rome
Portrait by Pompeo Batoni, 1775
ChurchCatholic Church
Papacy began15 February 1775
Papacy ended29 August 1799
PredecessorClement XIV
SuccessorPius VII
Previous post(s)
Orders
Ordination1758
Consecration22 February 1775
by Gian Francesco Albani
Created cardinal26 April 1773
by Clement XIV
Personal details
Born
Giovanni Angelo Braschi

(1717-12-25)25 December 1717
Died29 August 1799(1799-08-29) (aged 81)
Valence, French Republic
MottoFloret in Domo Domini (It blossoms in the house of God)[1]
SignaturePius VI's signature
Coat of armsPius VI's coat of arms
Other popes named Pius

Pope Pius VI (Italian: Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 1717 – 29 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.[2][3]

Pius VI condemned the French Revolution and the suppression of the Catholic Church in France that resulted from it. French troops commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Papal army and occupied the Papal States in 1796. In 1798, upon his refusal to renounce his temporal power, Pius was taken prisoner and transported to France. He died eighteen months later in Valence. His reign of more than twenty-four years is the fifth-longest in papal history.

  1. ^ "The Wind was too Strong". Rome Art Lover. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  2. ^ Many sources indicate that he was born on 27 December 1717 but this is actually the date of his baptism, cf. Pastor, XXXIX, p. 22.
  3. ^ Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, (Yale University Press, 2001), 254.