A future pope's diary: the sighting of the Canary Islands during the 1823 Muzi Mission

The recent visit of Pope Leo XIV to the Canaries — the first by a pontiff to the Archipelago — has renewed interest in historical episodes in which clergymen who later became popes had contact with the Islands. Among them is the then-canon Juan María Mastai Ferretti, the future Pius IX, whose voyage to South America in 1823 was recorded in the expedition's diaries.

The papal mission to Chile

According to an analysis by geography and history professor Luis Cabrera Rodríguez, published in the regional press, the expedition on which Mastai Ferretti travelled was the first official papal mission sent to South America. The Holy See organised it at the request of the new Chilean authorities following their independence from Spain, with the aim of reorganising the local Church in the nascent republic.

The account draws on two references: La misión del Vicario apostólico don Juan Muzi: notas para la historia de Chile (1823-1825), by Luis Barros Borgoño — a historian and briefly vice-president of the Republic of Chile in late 1925 — and a primary source, the Historia de las misiones apostólicas de Monseñor Juan Muzi en el Estado de Chile, written by Italian priest José Sallusti, secretary to the delegation.

Supplementary documentation sets the political context of the mission. According to Mastai's diary as quoted by La Tercera, the party — led by apostolic vicar Giovanni Muzi — sought to address the strained relationship between the Catholic Church and the new Latin American republics. The mission, ratified by Pope Leo XII, departed on 5 October 1823.

The pionono legend and the confusion with Mallorca

A story has circulated in the Canaries that Mastai Ferretti visited Santa Cruz de La Palma in 1823, where he supposedly sampled traditional sweets and expressed a particular fondness for one that would go on to be called pionono, in reference to the canon who was elected pope in 1846 and held the office for nearly 32 years.

However, according to Cabrera Rodríguez's analysis, neither Barros Borgoño's notes nor Sallusti's detailed chronicle mention any stay on La Isla Bonita, despite the extensive level of detail throughout the account of the entire expedition. The misunderstanding appears to stem from the first port of call after leaving Genoa. The party arrived in Mallorca on the morning of the 14th, and the text reads literally: "We anchored off La Palma, which is the capital" — a reference to Palma de Mallorca, described as having 20,000 inhabitants. Sallusti devotes numerous pages to the Mallorcan capital.

The documented sighting

This does not mean the expedition did not pass close to the Canaries. According to the account, after a final stop on the European mainland, the brigantine left the port of Tarifa on 30 October. Shortly afterwards the crew encountered a tailwind and heavy seas. According to the diary, a change of wind forced the vessel to alter course towards the Canaries.

During the crossing, cleric José Ignacio Cienfuegos — who had played a role in Chilean political life in support of emancipation from the Spanish monarchy — was suffering from nausea and indigestion and pleaded to go ashore to recover, while the rest of the crew continued towards America. The account places the sighting on the morning of 4 November.

Cienfuegos also appears in other sources consulted about the Muzi Mission, which identify him as the Chilean representative in the prior negotiations with the Holy See.

A journey that shaped the future pontiff

Mastai Ferretti's experience in the Americas — he was around 31 years old at the time — was, according to biographical accounts, his only experience of travelling abroad. The diary details his time in Chile, where he fell seriously ill crossing the cordillera. Mastai Ferretti, born in Senigallia in 1792, would be elected pope on 16 June 1846 and would go on to hold the longest pontificate in history.