Historical Cat
Micetto
1820s
The Vatican-born cat raised in a pope's robes and later given to a famous French writer.
- Owner
- Pope Leo XII, later François-René de Chateaubriand
- Years
- 1820s
- Known for
- Historical Cat
Micetto was a greyish-red cat with darker stripes, said to have been born in the Vatican and raised as a kitten in the folds of Pope Leo XII's robes. The pope was devoted to the cat, who reportedly kept him company during audiences and quiet hours, becoming one of the best-known papal pets in history.
After Leo XII died in 1829, Micetto was given to the French writer and diplomat François-René de Chateaubriand, who was serving in Rome at the time. Chateaubriand, himself a noted cat lover, took the cat back to France and wrote fondly of him, helping to preserve the story for later generations.
Micetto is remembered as a small but charming footnote in the history of famous cats — a Vatican-born feline who passed from a pope to one of the great figures of French Romantic literature, and whose gentle fame rested entirely on the affection of the powerful people who kept him.