Background Chigi was born in
Ariccia, the son of
Imperial Prince and Princess Antoinette zu
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn. The
House of Chigi, his father's family, was among the oldest and most prominent noble families of Rome, to which had belonged Pope
Alexander VII (1599–1667), who conferred upon his nephew Agostino Chigi (1634–1705) the hereditary princedoms of Farnese (1658) and Campagnano (1661), as well as the dukedoms of Arricia and Formello (1662), also procuring for all descendants of the Chigi male line the title of
Imperial prince and princess from the
Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I in 1659. He was an honorary member of the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Both of Chigi's parents had been members of the Order: his father was a Bailiff Knight Grand Cross of Devotion (since 21 June 1879) and his mother was a Dame decorated with the Cross of Devotion (since 10 June 1876). Under Chigi's leadership the order engaged in large-scale hospitaller and charitable activities during
World War II. In 1947, he was appointed president of an international committee to oversee the rebuilding of the Abbey of
Monte Cassino. Chigi died in Rome of a heart attack at the age of 85. After Chigi's death, the Order spiralled into difficulties and
Pope Pius XII forbade the immediate election of a new Grand Master which would have been usual. The Order was governed by a Lieutenant appointed by Rome (first
Antonio Hercolani Fava Simonetti and then
Ernesto Paternò Castello di Carcaci) and a Commission of Cardinals until the Constitutional Charter was approved by Apostolic Letter of
Pope John XXIII in 1961 and
Angelo de Mojana di Cologna was elected as new Grand Master. Cardinal
Nicola Canali had attempted to become Grand Master after the death of Chigi in 1951 and a great controversy erupted about the status of the order as a religious and sovereign one. In addition to this, there was the controversy of Yves Marsaudon (a
Freemason in Paris who had become a prominent member of the Order of Malta during the time of Chigi as Plenipotentiary to France and promoted
ecumenism). ==Marriage and offspring==