Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII was born March 2, 1876, to Filippo Pacelli and Virginia (Graziosi) Pacelli, in Rome, where he spent his childhood. He was ordained as a priest on April 2, 1899.
Family background
Eugenio was born into a family which, for most of the 19th century, was in service to the Holy See. The Pacelli family had a long tradition of legal training. His grandfather, Marcantonio Pacelli, had been minister of finance for Pope Gregory XVI and deputy minister of interior under Pope Pius IX from 1851 to 1870. He founded the L’Osservatore Romano on July 20, 1860. His father Filippo Pacelli, was a solicitor (lawyer) in the Congregation of the Sacred Rota. His brother, Francesco Pacelli, a Vatican lawyer as well, was dean of the lawyers of the Rota He was also the legal advisor to Pius XI, in which role he negotiated the Lateran Treaty in 1929, bringing an end to the Roman Question. It established the independence of the Papacy with the formation of Vatican City as a sovereign entity. Francesco Pacelli described in his Diario della Conciliazione details and difficulties of these negotiations from a Vatican perspective.
The family's parish church in Rome was the Chiesa Nuova where the body of St. Philip Neri was under the altar in a silver casket. Neri, with his unending sense of humor and love for education, music and culture, was one of the great heroes of young Eugenio Pacelli. Eugenio served as an altar boy at Chiesa Nuova, and, after his ordination as a priest, took weekly confessions there Eugenio was the third of four children, the second son. Two days after his birth, he was baptized at the Church of Saints Celso and Giuliano by his uncle, Monsignor Giuseppe Pacelli. His godparents were his maternal uncle Filippo Graziosi and paternal aunt Teresa Pacelli. In the apartment where he grew up, there was a shrine of the Madonna with a prie-dieu at which Pacelli would frequently pray.
Education
At age five, Eugenio was enrolled in a kindergarten conducted by the French Sisters of Providence, in what is now known as Via Zanardelli. In 1939, a bust of Pius XII was unveiled at the school. He graduated to a private Catholic elementary school in the Piazza Santa Lucia dei Ginnasi. After elementary school, Eugenio began his studies at the Ennio Quirino Visconti Lyceum. Under the direction of the Jesuits, it was a semi-military academy under governmental control. Here he learned several languages, including Latin. Eugenio carried the influence of his parents and Father with him into his secularized (Liceo). For an essay assignment on a "favorite" historical figure, Eugenio is said to have chosen Augustine of Hippo, prompting sneers from his classmates. When he attempted to expand a little on the history of Christian civilization, a theme absent in the curriculum, his teacher chided him, informing him that he was not employed to take the lesson. At age twelve, he announced that he would enter the priesthood, rather than becoming a lawyer like most of his family. Nobody was surprised, said his sister Elisabetta Pacelli.
Eugenio’s Self-Portrait
Thirteen years old, Eugenio was asked by his Professor Ignazio Bassi, to write a self-portrait, which is one of several school essays of Eugenio Pacelli in original school books. I am thirteen years old and for this age I am, as one can see, neither very tall nor small. My figure is slender, the colour of my skin brown, my face rather pale, my hair chestnut and soft, my eyes black, my nose rather bent. I will not say much of my chest, which to be true, is not very big. I have a pair of long and thin legs, and two feet, not minor size. From all this, one can understand, that physically, I am an average young man. Nature awarded me with sufficient gifts, so I may with good will, do many things. …I am inspired by the classics and the study of Latin gives me the highest sense of enjoyment. Since I love music, I enjoy playing an instrument in my free time especially during vacations. My character is pretty impatient and strong. But I feel an obligation to modify it through education. I am comforted, to see that in my heart resides an instinctive generosity. As I won’t tolerate disagreement, I easily forgive those, who insult me. I hope that age and reflection will contribute to a disappearance of the damaging shortcomings, which I recognize. It seems I have said the truth”.