Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII
Bishop of Rome
Leo XIII in c. 1878
Church	Catholic Church
Papacy began	20 February 1878
Papacy ended	20 July 1903
Predecessor	Pius IX
Successor	Pius X
Previous post(s)	Titular Archbishop of Tamiathis (1843‍–‍1846) Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium (1843‍–‍1846) Archbishop-Bishop of Perugia (1846‍–‍1880) Cardinal Priest of San Crisogono (1853‍–‍1878) Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber (1877‍–‍1878)
Orders
Ordination	31 December 1837 by Carlo Odescalchi
Consecration	19 February 1843 by Luigi Lambruschini
Created cardinal	19 December 1853 by Pius IX
Personal details
Born	(1810-03-02)2 March 1810 Carpineto Romano, Rome, French Empire
Died	20 July 1903(1903-07-20) (aged 93) Apostolic Palace, Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Signature
Coat of arms
Ordination history
History Priestly ordination Ordained by Carlo Odescalchi Date 31 December 1837 Episcopal consecration Principal consecrator Luigi Lambruschini Co-consecrators Fabio Maria Asquini Giuseppe Maria Castellani Date 19 February 1843 Cardinalate Elevated by Pope Pius IX Date 19 December 1853
Episcopal succession Bishops consecrated by Pope Leo XIII as principal consecrator Antonio Briganti 19 November 1871 Carmelo Pascucci 19 November 1871 Carlo Laurenzi 24 June 1877 Edoardo Borromeo 19 May 1878 Francesco Latoni 1 June 1879 Jean-Baptiste-François Pitra 1 June 1879 Bartholomew Woodlock 1 June 1879 Agostino Bausa 24 March 1889 Giuseppe Antonio Ermenegildo Prisco 29 May 1898
Other popes named Leo

Pope Leo XIII (Italian: Leone XIII; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci;^[a] 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Apostle, Pius IX (his immediate predecessor), and John Paul II.

He is well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. With that encyclical, he became popularly called the "Social Pope" and the "Pope of the Workers", also having created the foundations for modern thinking in the social doctrines of the Catholic Church, influencing his successors. He influenced the Mariology of the Catholic Church and promoted both the rosary and the scapular. Upon his election, he immediately sought to revive Thomism, the theological system of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, wishing to make it the official political, theological, and philosophical foundation of the Catholic Church. As a result, he sponsored the Editio Leonina in 1879.

Leo XIII is remembered for his belief that pastoral activity in political sociology is also a vital mission of the church as a vehicle of social justice and maintaining the rights and dignities of the human person. He issued a record eleven papal encyclicals on the rosary, earning him the title "Rosary Pope". He also approved two new Marian scapulars. He was the first pope to have never held any control over the Papal States, which had been dissolved by 1870, since Stephen II in the 8th century. Similarly, many of his policies were oriented toward mitigating the loss of the Papal States in an attempt to overcome the loss of temporal power, but nonetheless continuing the Roman Question. After his death in 1903, he was buried in the Vatican Grottoes. In 1924, his remains were transferred to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.
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