Pope Benedict XV (born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922), was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in 1922. 

 The World War I and its consequences were the main focus of Benedict XV. He immediately  attempted  to mediate peace in 1916 and 1917. Both sides rejected his initiatives.   Having failed with diplomatic initiatives, he focused on humanitarian efforts to lessen the impacts of the war, such as attending prisoners of war, the exchange of wounded soldiers and food deliveries to needy populations in Europe.

He was renowned for his generosity, answering all pleas for help from poor Roman families with large cash gifts from his private revenues. He also depleted the Vatican's official revenues with large-scale charitable expenditure during World War I (Michael Burleigh, Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics from the Great War to the War on Terror, HarperCollins, 2007, p.70.).

