v42_1013 - VATICANO - PIE XI (Achille Ratti) Médaille AR 44, Institut pontifical d’archéologie chrétienne 1926 Rome

VATICAN - PIUS XI (Achille Ratti)

(1922-1939)

Born in 1857, Achille Ratti was a priest in 1879. He was nuncio in Warsaw between 1918 and 1921, then became cardinal-archbishop of Milan and succeeded Benedict XV on February 6, 1922 under the name of Pius XI. "Pope of the missions", he is also very attached to making the Christian spirit penetrate into legislation and is at the origin of numerous concordats with Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Portugal, the Baltic States. He also obtained the restoration of normal relations with the Italian State during the Lateran Agreements (1929). Faced with the rise of communist and facist powers, he recalls Christian values, particularly in the face of atheism..