20th Century · 260th pope in the Annuario Pontificio list
Pius XII
Venerable
- Pontificate
- 02/03/1939 – 09/10/1958
- Birth name
- Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli
- Nationality
- Italy
- Born – died
- 1876 – 1958
- Predecessor
- Pius XI
- Successor
- John XXIII
Historical context
Historians still debate his conduct during the Holocaust: Church institutions in Rome sheltered many Jews, while critics fault his public reticence. The Vatican archives for his pontificate opened in 2020.
Important events
- Pope during the Second World War
- Defined the Assumption of Mary (1950)
Councils and documents
- Divino afflante Spiritu (1943)
- Mystici Corporis (1943)
- Munificentissimus Deus (1950)
List: Wikidata (CC0), ordinals per the Annuario Pontificio, retrieved 2026-10-01. Antipopes are not included. For the current pope, see vatican.va.