The papal encyclical, Praedecessores Nostros, was written by Pope Pius IX to address the crisis of the Great Irish Famine that occurred approximately between 1845 and 1850. This event is known by many as the 19th century’s greatest natural disaster. Pope Pius IX was born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti on May 13, 1792 in Senigallia, Italy. He studied at the College of Volterra in Tuscany and was ordained as a priest in 1819. Throughout the span of his life, Pope Pius IX served as the director of the Roman hospice of San Michele, Bishop of Imola, and Archbishop of Spoleto. He was made a Cardinal (Catholicism) in 1840 and elected Pope in 1846. Several important events that occurred during the papacy of Pope Pius IX are the unification of Italy, the First Vatican Council, the defining of the d