Who he was
Girolamo Masci came from a humble family near Ascoli and joined the Franciscans young. He was sent to Constantinople in 1272 to invite the Greeks to the Second Council of Lyons, succeeded St Bonaventure as Minister General of the order in 1274, and was made a cardinal in 1278 and Bishop of Palestrina in 1281. After a conclave broken up by fever, he was chosen unanimously in February 1288 and accepted only after a second vote. He crowned Charles II of Anjou King of Sicily and Naples in 1289, and died in Rome in April 1292.
What he is remembered for
He was the first Franciscan pope. After the fall of Acre in 1291 ended Christian rule in the Holy Land, he called in vain for a new crusade, and he sent missionaries, among them John of Montecorvino, as far as China. He built a palace beside St Mary Major, where he is buried; his reign was marked by the strong influence of the Colonna family in Rome.
Sources
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