Eighteenth-century baptismal fonts are not a rare sight. That being said, not every church in Rome has a baptismal font because many of those churches never had parish status. In fact, parish status of this church was revoked in 1906 and the parish records were transferred to nearby San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. The baptismal record of baby Eugenio, penned in Latin, remains in the parish archive.
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| The church where Ven. Pius XII was baptized |
The font is made of two separate colors of marble. In common fashion, the basin of the bowl has no drain. It can be assumed a glass bowl may have been placed inside it, holding the blessed water. The font is today located at the Roman Basilica of San Pancrazio, under the care of the Carmelite Order. It is unclear why it was moved there; possibly so that baptisms could continue to be celebrated with it. The original top lid is unfortunately missing.
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| The parents of Ven. Pius XII |
At the time of the baptism the Pacelli family was renting a third-story flat in the old seventeenth century Palazzo Pediconi on the Via degli Orsini, 34 (seen below). The apartment consisted of a dozen rooms and was located within the parish boundary of the church of Saints Celso and Giuliano.
The priest who did the baptism was the uncle of the newborn baby, Don Giuseppe Pacelli who died in 1894 in his 88th year. The godfathers was the maternal uncle Filippo Graziosi. The godmother was the paternal aunt, Teresa Pacelli.
Who knew the infant was destined to be Christ's Vicar on earth? Family lore tells a story, wholly apocryphal, that when the family returned home after the baptism, an aged friend of the family was waiting, a certain Mons. Jacobacci. In a gesture like that of Simeon in the temple, he is said to have taken the baby in his arms and predicted his rise to the papacy.
Next to the baptismal entry in the parish record book, a different hand later inked on the margin the news of the baby's ascent to the throne of St. Peter on his sixty-third birthday, March 2, 1939.
A year or so before the young Eugenio's schooling began, the Pacelli family moved to a nearby palazzo, where they lived at Via della Vetrina, 20.
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| The Roman palace where Pius XII was born |
Following are various images of the font, today seen at San Pancrazio. Let us hope and pray it will one day be restored to its original location at Saints Celso and Giuliano. Since 2019 this beautiful church has been under the care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
Immediately below is what the alcove looks like today where the future Pope was baptized in the church of Saints Celso and Giuliano. There is a marble plaque commemorating the event. The painting is entitled Battesimo di Cristo (Baptism of Christ), by Giuseppe Ranucci, 1737.
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| The location of the Baptism, seen today |
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| The location of the Baptism, seen today |
