On September 6, 1914, Giacomo della Chiesa was elected to the throne of St Peter at the age of 59. Benedict XV, as he became, was one of the youngest popes in history and the conclave of cardinals which elected him had found the man for the hour. The First World War had broken out a month before, and four years of his seven-and-a-half-year papacy were to be taken up by his doomed attempts to stop what he condemned as “the Suicide of Civilised Europe”, and then attempt to forge a lasting peace.
Born in Genoa in 1854 as the sixth child of an ancient but poor patrician family, and ordained in 1878, much of della Chiesa’s life had been spent in the Vatican’s diplomatic service. In 1901 he became Secretary of State and in 1907 succeeded to the archdiocese of Bologna. Archbishop della Chiesa had seen himself as a peacemaker, calling for neutrality, the promotion of peace and the easing of suffering.
