Who he was
The son of a Genoese marquis, he took a law degree to please his father before studying for the priesthood in Rome. He served in the papal diplomatic service under Cardinal Rampolla, in Madrid and then in the Secretariat of State, until Pius X made him Archbishop of Bologna in 1907. He had been a cardinal for only three months when he was elected, a month after the outbreak of the First World War.
What he is remembered for
He spent his reign pleading for peace, and in 1917 sent the warring powers a peace note calling the war a 'useless slaughter', while organising help for prisoners, the wounded and hungry children. He promulgated the first Code of Canon Law in 1917, founded the Congregation for the Eastern Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and urged the training of native clergy in the missions in Maximum illud (1919). Grateful people in Constantinople raised a statue to him as a benefactor of all peoples.
Sources
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