Gioacchino Pecci

Pope Leo XIII
Bishop of Rome
Pope Leo XIII
Papacy began	20 February 1878
Papacy ended	20 July 1903
Predecessor	Pius IX
Successor	Pius X
Orders
Ordination	31 December 1837 by Carlo Odescalchi
Consecration	19 February 1843 by Luigi Emmanuele Nicolò Lambruschini
Created Cardinal	19 December 1853 by Pius IX
Personal details
Birth name	Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci
Born	2 March 1810 Carpineto Romano, département of Rome, French Empire
Died	20 July 1903(1903-07-20) (aged 93) Apostolic Palace, Rome, Vatican City
Previous post	Titular Archbishop of Tamiathis (1843–46) Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium (1843–46) Archbishop of Perugia (1846–78) Cardinal-Priest of San Crisogono (1853–78) Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber (1877–78)
Coat of arms

Papal styles of Pope Leo XIII
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	None

Pope Leo XIII (Italian: Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903, to an Italian comital family) reigned as Pope from 20 February 1878 to his death. He was the oldest pope (reigning until the age of 93), and had the third longest pontificate, behind that of Pius IX (his immediate predecessor) and John Paul II. He is the most recent pontiff to date to take the pontifical name of "Leo" upon being elected to the pontificate.

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 famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of labor unions, while affirming the rights of property and free enterprise, opposing both Atheistic Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism. He influenced Roman Catholic Mariology and promoted both the rosary and the scapular.

Leo XIII issued a record of eleven Papal encyclicals on the rosary earning him the title as the "Rosary Pope". In addition, he approved two new Marian scapulars and was the first pope to fully embrace the concept of Mary as Mediatrix. He was the first pope to never have held any control over the Papal States, after they had been dissolved by 1870. He was briefly buried in the grottos of Saint Peter's Basilica before his remains were later transferred to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.

Born in Carpineto Romano, near Rome, he was the sixth of the seven sons of Count Ludovico Pecci and his wife Anna Prosperi Buzzi. His brothers included Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista Pecci. Until 1818 he lived at home with his family, "in which religion counted as the highest grace on earth, as through her, salvation can be earned for all eternity". Together with his brother Giuseppe, he studied in the Jesuit College in Viterbo, where he stayed until 1824. He enjoyed the Latin language and was known to write his own Latin poems at the age of eleven.