Cardinal Pietro Maffi

Pietro Maffi (1858-1931) was appointed by Pope Pius X in 1904 to serve as the President of the Governing Board of the Vatican Observatory. In a 1905 memorandum sent to Pius X, Maffi recommended that the Observatory be entrusted to the care of a single religious order, the Society of Jesus. He also recommended that Fr. Johann Hagen S.J. be appointed Director of the Observatory, and that the Observatory staff should reside together in one place.