A reader writes:
My brother and I were talking and he was asking if I knew why some of the popes in history have the name “Pope Pius” and then the number but no “name” to speak of and he was also wondering what that title meant. My answer was that the word pious means humble and that I would assume that they were trying to emulate that word into their being and how they worked within their pontificate.
However I am sure if this is the case it is only the tip of the iceberg. Can you give me any information on this?
Sure thing!
This is a natural thing to wonder about since in the English-speaking world we don’t hear the name "Pius" very often, but it actually is a name, so popes who have the name Pius actually do have a name–just not one that we’re used to hearing in English.
The Italian version of this name is Pio. You may have heard, for example, of the famous Italian priest (now a saint) who in life was called Padre Pio ("Father Pius").
What we English-speakers tend to think of when we hear the name Pius, though, is not a name but the adjective pious, which we get from the Latin adjective pius (spelled the same as the name, but being used as an adjective).
In Latin, the adjective pius means things like "conscientious; upright; faithful; patriotic/dutiful, respectful; rightous; good affectionate, tender, devoted, loyal (to family); pious, devout; holy, godly."
Latin-speaking parents who wanted their children to be these things might thus name him Pius (or, if she was a girl, they might name her Pia, the feminine equivalent of pius), the same way that we might name a baby "Christian," hoping that he will grow up to fulfill his name.
The first pope to be named Pius was . . . well, Pius I (big surprise), who was the tenth pope and reigned between A.D. 140 and 155. In his day, popes didn’t take new names when they were elected, so Pius seems to have been his birth name.
That had changed by the time of the next pope named Pius (Pius II–again, big surprise) who was the 211th pope and who reigned between 1458 and 1464.
Presumably, he picked the name Pius partly in memory of the first Pope Pius but also because he wanted to display the virtue of being pious (i.e., piety) during his reign as pope.
Although in Latin Pius and pius are spelled the same (which could lead to confusion in some contexts), we have a handy way of distinguishing the name from the adjective in English. If you see Pius (capitalized and no O), it’s the name, but if you see pious (with an O, whether it’s capitalized or not) then it’s the adjetive.
Hope this helps!
This shouldn’t be that strange an idea to someone, since, in addition to Jimmy’s example of the name “Christian”, there are common names like Faith, Charity, Prudence, Mercedes, Hope, etc., some of which are more common today than others.
Yes, Jimmy, but the real question is what’s the explanation behind the popes named “Innocent?”
And what was Pope St. Hilarius trying to tell us with his name?
“Yes, Jimmy, but the real question is what’s the explanation behind the popes named “Innocent?””
Umm…”not guilty”?
And saints’ names are traditional in hopes that the namesake will find the original worthy of emulation.
Pius II, it seems, actually chose the name as a literary reference. He was born Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Aeneas Sylvius in Latin), and was one of the greatest of the Renaissance Humanists and Classicists. His choice of “Pius” as a papal name was because his namesake in Virgil’s Aeneid is characterized by his “pietas” and is repeatedly referred to as “pius Aeneas.”
But its meaning (“pious, dutiful”) was also, as you suggest, meant to indicate a change in his lifestyle. In his early days he was a very worldly, and not terribly holy fellow; after he became a cleric, however, he seems to have gotten more serious about things. He plays on this idea in his autobiography, in which he says “Away with that Aeneas, and now receive Pius!”
The name was then picked up again a couple popes later by his nephew, who chose Pius III in homage to his uncle and as an indication of his desire to pursue similar policies. But were it not for a humanist pope’s love of his Virgil, the name probably would have been relegated to the dustbin of papal history along with many other early papal names (Telesphorus, anyone?)
Was Pope St. Cletus from Georgia?
I’ve wondered why a lot of good saints’ names have never been chosen by a pope. There have been many popes who have chosen John, Gregory, Paul, Martin, etc., but none has chosen James, Joseph, Thomas, Philip, or Andrew, for example. Is there any particular reason?
It’s much the same reason kings often repeat names (how many times in a row did French kings choose “Louis”?)- tradition and respect for predecessors.