Leo XIII

A biography of Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903), who served as head of the Catholic Church from February 20, 1878 to his death on July 20, 1903. At age 93, Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci was the oldest reigning pope, and had the third-longest confirmed pontificate, behind those of Pius IX (his immediate predecessor) and John Paul II. Pope Leo XIII was well-known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his famous