Edgardo Mortara Catholic priest of Jewish origin. Country: Israel

Biography of Edgardo Mortara

Edgardo Mortara was a Catholic priest of Jewish origin. On the evening of June 23, 1858, police officers arrived at the home of Marianne and Solomon (Momolo) Mortara in the city of Bologna to take their six-year-old son Edgardo. They were acting on the orders of Pope Pius IX. The church authorities had learned that a maid in the Mortara household had secretly baptized Edgardo when he was sick. According to her, she feared that the boy would die and his soul would go to hell. Bologna was part of the theocratic state of the Papal States. According to the laws, Jews were not allowed to raise a Christian child, even if it was their own. Edgardo Mortara was taken to Rome, where he was raised in a house for Jewish Catholics. Initially, the family was not allowed to have any contact with him. Later, visits were allowed, but not in private. Various Jewish organizations and prominent figures, including Napoleon III and Emperor Franz Joseph, protested against the situation. However, Pope Pius IX rejected all demands to return the child. After the Papal States were annexed by Italy in 1870, the Pope lost power and the Mortara family made another attempt to get their son back. However, by that time, Edgardo Mortara had reached the age of 19 and declared that he was committed to the Catholic faith. In the same year, he moved to France, where he joined the Augustinian order. At the age of 23, Mortara became a priest, taking the name Pius. He engaged in missionary work in German cities, converting Jews to Catholicism.

Mortara supported the beatification of Pope Pius IX. In 1912, while advocating for the beatification of the Pope, he wrote that his parents had arrived in Rome nine days later and visited him every day for a month, trying to convince him to return. According to him, he had no desire to go back home, explaining it as "the power of prayer." Mortara later reestablished his relationship with his family and attended his mother's funeral. He was fluent in nine foreign languages. Mortara died in Belgium, spending his final years in a monastery.