1954Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared as saints.[โ ]
Pope Pius XII was the head of the Catholic Church, Primate of Italy, and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name "Pius".