Pope Benedict XI

Pope Benedict XI (Latin: Benedictus XI; 1240 – 7 July 1304), born Nicola Boccasini (Niccolò of Treviso), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 October 1303 to his death on 7 July 1304.

Boccasini entered the Order of Preachers in his native Treviso. He studied at Venice and Milan before becoming a teacher in Venice and in other Dominican houses. He served two terms as Provincial Prior of Lombardy, before being elected Master of the Order in 1296. Two years later he was made cardinal. He was appointed Bishop of Ostia, and served as papal legate first to Hungary, and then to France. He was with Pope Boniface VIII when Boniface was attacked by French forces at Anagni.

He was beatified with his cultus confirmed by Pope Clement XII in 1736. He is a patron of Treviso.

Niccolò Boccasini was born in Treviso to Boccasio, a municipal notary (died 1246), whose brother was a priest; and Ber(n)arda, who worked as a laundress for the Dominican friars of Treviso. Boccasini had a sister, Adelette. The family lived outside the walls of Treviso, in a suburb called S. Bartolommeo.

In 1246, a Dominican friar left a sum of money in his will to Bernarda and her children, recently orphaned. A condition was that if Boccasini were to enter the Dominican Order he would receive half of the entire legacy. From the age of six, it seems, Boccasini was destined for the monastic life. His first teacher was his uncle, the priest of S. Andrea.

He entered the Order of Preachers in 1254, at the age of fourteen, taking the habit of a novice in his native Treviso. He was taken to Venice by his Prior and presented to the Provincial, who assigned him to the convent of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. For the next seven years or so, Boccasini pursued his basic education in Venice. Toward the end of this period, he served as a tutor to the young sons of Romeo Quirini of Venice, whose brother was a Canon in the Cathedral of Treviso.

In 1262, Boccasini was transferred to Milan, to the new studium of S. Eustorgio. He spent the next six years at S. Eustorgio. By the end of his term at S. Eustorgio he must have become a professed member of the Order of Preachers; the actual date is unknown. As a professed brother he served in the responsible position as a lecturer in the studium in Venice, that is to say, he was in charge of the elementary education of the brothers in his convent.

Each convent had its lector. He served as lector for fourteen years, from 1268 to 1282, according to Bernardus Guidonis. In 1276 he is attested as being lector at the Dominican convent in his native Treviso, a post he was still holding in 1280. In February 1282 he is found at Genoa, again as lector. He was not a professor, since he had never taken a university degree, being one of the last popes who was not a university graduate.