Pope Pius VII, a prisoner of Napoleon from 1809 to 1814, endured humiliation but successfully resisted all attempts to fracture the unity of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said.

When Napoleon was defeated and the pope was able to return to Rome, “the community that emerged was materially poorer, but morally stronger, more cohesive and more credible,” the pope told pilgrims from the Italian dioceses of Cesena-Sarsina, Tivoli, Savona and Imola, who were marking the 200th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius VII.

Barnaba Chiaramonti, who would become a Benedictine monk and abbot before being elected pope in 1800, was born in Cesena.

Pope Francis told the pilgrims, “His example spurs us to be, in our time, even at the cost of renunciations, builders of unity in the universal church, in the local church, in parishes and families: to build communion, to favour reconciliation, to promote peace, faithful to truth in charity!”

Pope Pius VII came from a well-off family, Pope Francis told the pilgrims, but he had told the cardinals who elected him that “it is not in splendour… but rather in contempt for riches, in humility, in modesty, in patience, in charity and finally in every priestly duty that the image of Our Creator is portrayed, and the authentic dimension of the church is preserved.”

“What he said is beautiful,” Pope Francis said.

After Napoleon’s troops had invaded Italy, Pope Pius VII tried to negotiate with him and succeeded to some extent until Napoleon invaded the Papal States in 1809 and exiled the pope to Savona and then to France.