Girolamo Masci (Nicholas IV) elected Pope

The first Franciscan elected pope, Girolamo Masci was born in 1227 near Ascoli in the papal states. He succeeded St. Bonaventure as Franciscan minister general in 1274 and was made a cardinal in 1281. Elected to the papal see in 1288, Nicholas mediated peace between France and Aragon; he received the news that Muslims had taken Acre (1291). In 1290, he condemned the fanatical Apostolici. The pope sent missionaries to Chile and Ethiopia; also, he established the first Roman Catholic church in China. A patron of the arts, Nicholas died in 1292.

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