Blessed Innocent XI
1611 – 1689
feast – August 12
Benedetto Odescalchi was born to a wealthy merchant in Como, Italy. After serving as a cardinal and bishop of Novara, he was elected pope in 1676. He inherited an ongoing con ict with French King Louis XIV over royal interference in church a airs; he also criticized the English king for trying to restore Catholicism by force and contemporary mystics who espoused Quietism. Accusations that he was a Jansenist likely were prompted by his unceasing battles against nepotism and sinecures and by severe economic measures he instituted to balance the budget and fund the campaign against the Turks. Innocent lived simply and was generous to the poor; he was beati ed in 1956.
