β Biography
Pope Benedict XIII (Latin: Benedictus XIII; Italian: Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 β 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco (or Pierfrancesco) Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May 1724 to his death in February 1730. Orsini's lack of political expertise led him to increasingly rely on an unscrupulous secretary (Cardinal NiccolΓ² Coscia) whose financial abuses ruined the papal treasury, causing great damage to the Church in Rome. In the process towards sainthood, his cause for canonization opened in 1755, but