INNOCENZO IX, PAPA. – Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti de Nuce, born on 20 July 1519 to a Veronese family that had moved to Bologna. He served in the household of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, became an abbreviator of apostolic letters and, having been appointed bishop of Nicastro (Reggio Calabria) on 26 January 1560, took an active part in the Council of Trent.
In 1566 he was sent as nuncio to Venice, where he remained until 1575, helping to conclude with the Signoria the celebrated league against the Turks that led to the naval victory of Lepanto. Having resigned Nicastro (1575), he was appointed patriarch of Jerusalem (12 November 1576) and then created cardinal of the SS. Quattro Coronati by Gregory XIII on 12 December 1583. He was one of the inquisitors of the Holy Office and one of the most highly esteemed prelates of his age. Already regarded as «papabile» in the Conclave from which Gregory XIV emerged, upon the latter’s death, thanks to the support of the Spanish party, he was elected pontiff on 29 October 1591 and crowned on 3 November. He died on 30 December of that same year, worn out by exertions exceeding his precarious health. He remained favorable to Spanish policy and therefore hostile to Henry IV of France, while limiting the contributions of the Holy See to the war against the Huguenots. Some of his writings, compiled before his pontificate, remained unpublished.