Innocent XI — born Benedetto Odescalchi — was elected in 1676 after the cardinals deadlocked for two months. His papacy was defined by fiscal austerity and an open hostility toward nepotism; he refused to enrich his own family and dismantled several of the revenue-generating sinecures his predecessors had quietly institutionalized. The motto on this coin, drawn from Ecclesiastes, was not decorative piety — it was policy.
He was beatified in 1956, one of very few popes to reach that status in the modern era.
Innocent XI — born Benedetto Odescalchi — was elected in 1676 after the cardinals deadlocked for two months. His papacy was defined by fiscal austerity and an open hostility toward nepotism; he refused to enrich his own family and dismantled several of the revenue-generating sinecures his predecessors had quietly institutionalized. The motto on this coin, drawn from Ecclesiastes, was not decorative piety — it was policy.
He was beatified in 1956, one of very few popes to reach that status in the modern era.