Definition of: Pius

(pī′əs)
1. A masculine personal name.
2. Appellation of 12 popes. [<L, dutiful, devout]
—Pius II,
1405–64, real name Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, pope 1458–64; diplomat, humanist, and historian.
—Pius IV,
1499–1565, real name Giovanni Angelo Medici, pope 1559–65; issued the Tridentine Creed.
—Pius V,
1504–72, real name Michele Ghislieri, pope 1566–72; promoted the Counter Reformation.
—Pius VII,
1742–1823, real name Luigi Barnaba Chiaramonti, pope 1800–23; crowned Napoleon I as emperor of France, was later imprisoned by him at Fontainebleau.
—Pius IX,
1792–1878, real name Giovanni Maria Mastai–Ferretti, pope 1846–78; lost temporal power to Victor Emmanuel, 1870.
—Pius X,
1835–1914, real name Giuseppi Melchiore Sarto, pope 1903–14; canonized in 1954.
—Pius XI,
1857–1939, real name Achille Ratti, pope 1922–39; signed treaty with Mussolini establishing Vatican City as a sovereign state and regulating the position of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy.
—Pius XII,
1876–1958, real name Eugenio Pacelli, pope 1939–58.