The papal conclave of 1939 was convened to elect a pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, to succeed Pope Pius XI following his death on 10 February 1939. The time period between the previous pope's death and the start of the conclave had been extended by Pius XI's , Cum proxime, following the late arrival of several electors in the previous conclave.
Of the 62 members of the College of Cardinals at the time of Pius XI's death, all participated in the subsequent conclave. Of the 62 electors, 6 were cardinal bishops, 48 were cardinal priests, and 8 were cardinal deacons; 2 had been created cardinals by Pope Pius X, 8 by Pope Benedict XV, and 52 by Pope Pius XI; 28 worked in the service of the Holy See (such as in the Roman Curia), 33 were in pastoral ministry outside Rome, and one was in academia. The oldest cardinal elector in the conclave was Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte, at the age of 87, and the youngest was Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, at the age of 50.
The cardinal electors entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave on 1 March 1939. On 2 March, after three ballots over two days, they elected Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the camerlengo and cardinal secretary of state, who took the papal name Pius XII.
Cardinal electors The data below are as of 10 February 1939, the date on which the Holy See became vacant. Cardinals belonging to institutes of consecrated life or to societies of apostolic life are indicated by the relevant post-nominal letters.
Rank Name Country Born Order Consistory Office 1 Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte Italy (age ) CB Pius X Prefect of the Congregation of Ceremonies (Dean) 2 Donato Sbarretti Italy (age ) CB Benedict XV Secretary of the Congregation of the Holy Office (Vice-Dean) 3 Tommaso Pio Boggiani Italy (age ) CB Benedict XV Chancellor of the Apostolic Chancery 4 Enrico Gasparri Italy (age ) CB Pius XI Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura 5 Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani Italy (age ) CB Pius XI Vicar General of Rome 6 Angelo Dolci Italy (age ) CB Pius XI Archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore 7 William Henry O'Connell United States (age ) CP Pius X Archbishop of Boston 8 Alessio Ascalesi Italy (age ) CP Benedict XV Archbishop of Naples 9 Adolf Bertram Germany (age ) CP Benedict XV Archbishop of Breslau 10 Michael von Faulhaber Germany (age ) CP Benedict XV Archbishop of Munich and Freising 11 Dennis Joseph Dougherty United States (age ) CP Benedict XV Archbishop of Philadelphia 12 Francisco Vidal y Barraquer Spain (age ) CP Benedict XV Archbishop of Tarragona 13 Karl Joseph Schulte Germany (age ) CP Benedict XV Archbishop of Cologne 14 Giovanni Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Bologna 15 George Mundelein United States (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Chicago 16 Alessandro Verde Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Secretary Emeritus of the Sacred Congregation of Rites 17 Lorenzo Lauri Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary 18 Jozef-Ernest van Roey Belgium (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Mechelen–Brussels 19 August Hlond Poland (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań 20 Pedro Segura y Sáenz Spain (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Seville 21 Jusztinián György Serédi Hungary (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Esztergom 22 Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Milan 23 Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira Portugal (age ) CP Pius XI Patriarch of Lisbon 24 Eugenio Pacelli* Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Cardinal Secretary of State , Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church 25 Luigi Lavitrano Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Palermo 26 Joseph MacRory Ireland (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Armagh 27 Jean Verdier France (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Paris 28 Sebastião Leme da Silveira Cintra Brazil (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro 29 Raffaele Rossi Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation 30 Achille Liénart France (age ) CP Pius XI Bishop of Lille 31 Pietro Fumasoni Biondi Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Prefect of the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith 32 Federico Tedeschini Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Datary of the Apostolic Dataria 33 Maurilio Fossati Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Turin 34 Carlo Salotti Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites 35 Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve Canada (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Quebec 36 Elia Dalla Costa Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Florence 37 Theodor Innitzer Germany (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Vienna 38 Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni Lebanon (age ) CP Pius XI Syriac Patriarch of Antioch 39 Enrico Sibilia Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Apostolic Nuncio Emeritus to Austria 40 Francesco Marmaggi Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Apostolic Nuncio Emeritus to Poland 41 Luigi Maglione Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Prefect of the Congregation of the Council 42 Carlo Cremonesi Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Almoner Emeritus of the Office of Papal Charities 43 Alfred Baudrillart France (age ) CP Pius XI Rector of the Catholic University of Paris 44 Emmanuel Célestin Suhard France (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Reims 45 Karel Kašpar Czechoslovakia (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Prague 46 Santiago Copello Argentina (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Buenos Aires 47 Isidro Gomá y Tomás Spain (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Toledo 48 Pietro Boetto Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Genoa 49 Eugène Tisserant France (age ) CP Pius XI Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches 50 Adeodato Giovanni Piazza Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Patriarch of Venice 51 Ermenegildo Pellegrinetti Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Apostolic Nuncio to Yugoslavia 52 Arthur Hinsley United Kingdom (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Westminster 53 Giuseppe Pizzardo Italy (age ) CP Pius XI Secretary Emeritus of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs 54 Pierre-Marie Gerlier France (age ) CP Pius XI Archbishop of Lyon 55 Camillo Caccia Dominioni Italy (age ) CD Pius XI Prefect of the Pontifical Household (Protodeacon) 56 Nicola Canali Italy (age ) CD Pius XI Assessor of the Congregation of the Holy Office 57 Domenico Jorio Italy (age ) CD Pius XI Prefect of the Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments 58 Vincenzo Lapuma Italy (age ) CD Pius XI Prefect of the Congregation for Religious 59 Federico Cattani Amadori Italy (age ) CD Pius XI Secretary of the Apostolic Signatura 60 Massimo Massimi Italy (age ) CD Pius XI President of the Pontifical Commission for the Redaction of the Code of Oriental Canon Law 61 Domenico Mariani Italy (age ) CD Pius XI President of the Administration of the Property of the Holy See 62 Giovanni Mercati Italy (age ) CD Pius XI Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archive, Librarian of the Vatican Library
Cardinal electors by continent and country The 62 attending cardinal electors were from 16 countries. The countries with the greatest number of cardinal electors were Italy (thirty-four), France (six), and Germany (five).
(Theodor Innitzer, the Archbishop of Vienna was originally from Austria, which had been annexed by Germany a year before the conclave, and ceased to be an independent state.)
+ Cardinal electors by continent Continent Number Percentage North America 4 South America 2 Asia 1 Europe* 55 Total 62 100.0%
+ Cardinal electors by country Country Continent Number Argentina South America 1 Belgium Europe 1 Brazil South America 1 Canada North America 1 Czechoslovakia Europe 1 France Europe 6 Germany Europe 5 Hungary Europe 1 Ireland Europe 1 Italy* Europe 34 Lebanon Asia 1 Poland Europe 1 Portugal Europe 1 Spain Europe 3 United Kingdom Europe 1 United States North America 3 Total 62
See also Cardinals created by Pius X Cardinals created by Benedict XV Cardinals created by Pius XI Cardinal electors for the 1922 conclave Cardinal electors for the 1958 conclave
References , with titles and photographs, in order of precedence