Pope Benedict XI

Niccolò Boccasini was born in Treviso in 1240, in the March of Treviso in northern Italy. He was the son of a municipal notary and entered the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) at about the age of fourteen. He studied theology within the order and became a respected lector, teaching in Dominican houses that included Venice and Milan and later serving as prior. His combination of learning, personal austerity, and administrative skill led to his appointment as provincial of Lombardy and, in 1296, to his election as Master General of the Dominican Order. In that office he travelled extensively to restore regular observance and emerged as a firm public defender of Pope Boniface VIII against the opposition of King Philip IV of France and of hostile cardinals.

In 1298 Boniface VIII created him cardinal-priest of Santa Sabina and afterward cardinal-bishop of Ostia, so that he became dean of the College of Cardinals. Boccasini remained among the pope’s most loyal supporters during the conflict that culminated in the assault on Boniface at Anagni in September 1303. After Boniface’s death the following month, the cardinals meeting in Rome elected Boccasini pope on 22 October 1303. He took the name Benedict XI. His pontificate lasted less than nine months and was devoted chiefly to calming the crisis left by his predecessor. He released Philip IV from ecclesiastical censures, sought a working peace with the French court, and showed limited clemency toward members of the Colonna family whom Boniface had ruined, while still condemning the principal authors of the outrage at Anagni, including Guillaume de Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna.

Benedict XI held court first in Rome and then, as the political situation remained unstable, in Perugia. He confirmed the privileges of the Dominican Order, dealt with disciplinary disputes among the Franciscans, and issued bulls intended to restore ecclesiastical order after years of confrontation between the papacy and the French crown. Contemporary writers describe him as personally devout, simple in manner, and more inclined to reconciliation than to the hierocratic claims associated with Boniface VIII. He died suddenly in Perugia on 7 July 1304. Rumors that he had been poisoned, sometimes attributed to agents of Nogaret, circulated at the time but were never proved and remain historical conjecture rather than established fact.

He was buried in the Dominican church of San Domenico in Perugia, where a tomb monument was later erected. Veneration of Benedict XI grew especially in Treviso and within the Dominican Order. He was beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1736; he was never formally canonized and is honored as Blessed Benedict XI. His feast is kept on 7 July, and he is regarded as a patron of Treviso. His short reign is remembered as an attempt at peace after the shock of Anagni and as the immediate prelude to the election of Clement V and the beginning of the Avignon papacy.