Benedict XI pope
A Dominican elected after the outrage of Anagni, he tried to reconcile the papacy and France in eight months of pontificate.
- Blessed
- Middle Ages
- Italy
- Feast day July 7
- 1240 – 1304
- Pope
Listen to the life 0:43
Niccolò Boccasini, son of a notary of Treviso, was master general of the Dominicans before his election as pope in October 1303, eleven days after the death of Boniface VIII, humiliated at Anagni by the men of Philip the Fair. He chose appeasement: he lifted the excommunication of the king of France and withdrew most of his predecessor's sanctions, without conceding the principle. He died at Perugia in July 1304, eight months after his election, in circumstances rumour attributed to poison. His cult was confirmed in 1736.
