Pope Pius IX

About Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX, serving as the Roman Catholic Pope from 1846 until his death in 1878, holds significant historical weight, reflected in his Pantheon HPI rank of #226 among approximately 15,000 assessed figures. His extraordinarily long pontificate spanned the turbulent period of Italian unification, during which he experienced the loss of the Papal States and famously proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility in 1870, solidifying the centralized authority of the modern Catholic Church.

In terms of modern internet attention, Pius IX receives roughly 649K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This places his online presence at an attention level about equal to his historical importance, indicated by an Attention Gap ratio of approximately 1x. For perspective, this level of attention is dwarfed by many figures with lesser historical impact; for instance, Joseph Smith (#387 HPI) garners 1.9M views, suggesting a significant difference in contemporary cultural resonance for religious figures across different traditions.

Despite his relatively even attention-to-importance ratio, Pius IX's online interest shows dynamic activity, evidenced by a substantial 109.0% year-over-year increase in pageviews. However, this growth does not translate to consistent recent interest, as his 2025 Momentum shows a 30% drop between the first and third quarters, suggesting a recent event or anniversary may have driven the earlier surge.