Pope Alexander VIII |
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Bishop of Rome | |
Papacy began | 6 October 1689 |
Papacy ended | 1 February 1691 |
Predecessor | Innocent XI |
Successor | Innocent XII |
Orders | |
Consecration | 27 December 1654 by Marcantonio Bragadin |
Created Cardinal | 19 February 1652 by Pope Innocent X |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Pietro Vito Ottoboni |
Born |
Venice, Republic of Venice |
22 April 1610
Died | 1 February 1691 Rome, Papal States |
(aged 80)
Previous post |
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Papal styles of Pope Alexander VIII |
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Reference style | His Holiness |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Pope Alexander VIII (22 April 1610 – 1 February 1691), born Pietro Vito Ottoboni, was Pope from 6 October 1689 to his death in 1691. He is the last pope to take the pontifical name of "Alexander" upon his election to the papacy.
Pietro Vito Ottoboni was born in 1610 of a noble Venetian family, and was the youngest of nine children of Vittoria Tornielli and Marco Ottoboni, grand chancellor of the Republic of Venice.
His early studies were made with marked brilliancy at the University of Padua where, in 1627, he earned a doctorate in canon and civil law. Ottoboni went to Rome during the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII and served as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura, and later served as the governor of the cities Terni, Rieti, Citta di Castello and Spoleto. He also served as the auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota.
Pope Innocent X appointed him to the cardinalate and in 1652 at the request of the Venetian government and he was made the Cardinal-Priest of San Salvatore in Lauro. He was appointed as Bishop of Brescia in 1654 and later received episcopal consecration in the church of San Marco in Rome. He would spend a quiet decade in his diocese. He opted to be Cardinal-Priest of San Marco in 1660 and resigned as Bishop of Brescia in 1664. Ottoboni also opted to become Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere in 1677 and later as Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prassede in 1680. He later became the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina in 1681 and then to Frascati in 1683. His last swap was that of Porto e Santa Rufina in 1687.