Giacomo della Chiesa was born at Genoa on November 2", 1804. With the exception then of Pius IX., who was elected Pope at the age of 54, Benedict XV. is one of the youngest Pontiffs of modern times, having not yet completed his Goth year. He was ordained, it is stated, in 1878, which implies that he must have passed straight from school to his ecclesiastical studies, and that he can have known little of the world before his seminary days. Five years later, on May 28, 1883, when he was still only 28, Giacomo della Chiesa was made one of the Camerieri Segreti Sopranumerari, a distinction which carries with it the title of Monsignore and allows the bearer to wear the costume of a lesser porporate, He became at the same time secretary to the Papal Embassy at the Spanish Court, until 1887, when he joined the household of Cardinal Rampolla, then Secretary of State.
He was promoted to more distinguished functions in the same department in 1902, and in 1907 he became Archbishop of Bologna, His admission to the Sacred College dates only from May 28 last, when he was created Cardinal-Priest of the Title dei Santi Quattro Coro-nati in succession to the late
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.