Fifty-nine years ago when ten-month-old Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, swung a royal rattle, and 13-year-old Achille Ratti declined irregular verbs in a Milan seminary, the troops of small Vittorio's grandfather, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, recently proclaimed King of Italy, stormed and breached the walls of the Papal city of Rome.
"I give thanks to God," wrote Pius IX. "who has permitted Your Majesty to fill the last days of my life with bitterness. I pray God to dispense to you his mercy, which you so much need."
From that day...
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