11 Facts About Giuseppe Pecci

Giuseppe Pecci was a Jesuit Thomist theologian whose younger brother, Vincenzo, became Pope Leo XIII and appointed him a cardinal.

The Neo-Thomist revival, which Leo XIII and his brother Giuseppe, Cardinal Pecci originated in 1879, remained the leading papal philosophy until Vatican II.

In 1824, Count Pecci called him and Vincenzo home to Rome, where their mother was dying; the father wanted his children to be with him after the loss of his wife, and so they remained in Rome, attending the Collegium Romanum, a college belonging to the Society of Jesus.

In 1828, the question of occupational choice arose for the two brothers; Giuseppe Pecci professed the Jesuit order, while Vincenzo decided in favour of a diocesan priest.

Giuseppe Pecci taught Thomism, the theology and philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1847.

In 1879, the College of Cardinals, led by Camillo, Cardinal di Pietro, insistently asked Pope Leo XIII to elevate his brother to their ranks, and at the age of 71 Giuseppe Pecci was created Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Agata dei Goti on 12 May 1879 in his brother's first consistory.

Giuseppe Pecci was the last member of a pope's family made a cardinal.

In 1879, Cardinal Giuseppe Pecci was appointed as first Prefect of the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas, which Leo founded on 15 October 1879, and was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Studies in February 1884 [3].

Giuseppe Pecci greatly increased staff and organization and appointed Jesuit father Franz Ehrle and Giuseppe Pecci to head the new undertaking as prefect and librarian, respectively.

Cardinal Giuseppe Pecci continued his work as congregation and academy prefect and librarian until he died on 8 February 1890, of complications from pneumonia.

Giuseppe Pecci is buried in the chapel of the Society of Jesus in Campo Verano Cemetery, in Rome [4][5].