Pope Pius XI
- proper noun
- Pope Pius XI was instrumental in establishing Vatican City as an independent state through the Lateran Treaty.
Examples
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On 2 May 1938, Hitler began an official seven-day visit to Rome, marking a decisive turn in Fascist Italy's policy on race, to the consternation of Pope Pius XI.
Academic text (1998) -
Pope Pius XI strongly opposed totalitarian regimes, advocating for peace and diplomacy among nations.
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During his papacy, Pope Pius XI addressed issues of social justice and the rights of workers.
Synonyms
A religious leader in Rome who leads the Roman Catholic Church worldwide
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church
A person who leads the Roman Catholic Church and is the Bishop of Rome
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines a transparent title + proper name + regnal numeral: 'Pope' signals the office and 'XI' indicates the eleventh of that papal name, so a learner who knows those words can infer this refers to the pope called Pius the Eleventh. 'Pius' is a proper name (not semantically compositional), but the overall structure (title + name + number) is predictable and cross-linguistically familiar, so the referential meaning is immediately understandable even if biographical details are not.
Etymology
Pope Pius XI comes from the custom that a new Pope takes a new name; he chose Pius and the number XI shows he was the eleventh pope to use that name. So the title refers to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church who took the name 'Pius' and was the eleventh 'Pius'.