Some Renaissance popes lived with the extravagance of kings — commissioning art, hosting grand feasts, and navigating political alliances that shaped Europe.
Popes like Leo X and Julius II poured enormous resources into the arts, funding Michelangelo, Raphael, and the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica. Their lifestyles were lavish, controversial, and deeply intertwined with the politics of their time.
And yet…
This same era produced saints like St. Philip Neri, St. Teresa of Ávila, and St. Ignatius of Loyola — spiritual giants who reformed the Church from within.
It’s one of the great paradoxes of history:
God can draw beauty, reform, and holiness out of eras marked by excess.
