Our Lady of Loreto heals Pope Pius IX from epileptic attacks

Today we want to tell you an anecdote about the little-known Pope Pius IX. Even as a young man the Pope suffered from epileptic fits. Born in 1792 in Senigaglia, with the name of Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino, he was the ninth of 10 children.

Joseph Santarelli tells us this little-known insight into the life of the Pope John Mary the Baptist she was very religious and devoted to Our Lady of Loreto. Giovanni was a special child from an early age. He played and laughed with his friends but when the Friday reunited them with a crucifix in hand and on the street he preached the gospel. Even passers-by stopped to listen, driven by the fervor of his creed.

The appearance of epileptic attacks

A 11 years entered the college of Nobles of Volterra and from here began his health problems. Epileptic attacks, frequent and sudden, left him no respite. These attacks were triggered by a accident from 1797, when he fell into a stream, bringing back a encephalitic head trauma.

In 1814 he moved to Roma with an uncle and there he continued his studies in philosophy and theology at the Roman college. In the 1815 managed to join Papal Noble Guard, but was discharged soon after due to epileptic fits.

Embittered and disappointed, he headed in pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Loreto. After that visit, the seizures disappeared. The boy attributed the healing to Our Lady of Loreto and as a thank you, when he became Pope, took off his pectoral cross and ring and sent them to the Shrine of Loreto.

Pope Pius IX was elected to the papal throne in 1846, becoming the 255th pope of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate, which lasted until his death in 1878, Pius IX found himself facing some of the most turbulent moments and history's revolutionaries modern day, including the Italian Risorgimento, Italian unification and the loss of the Papal States.