Vladimir Ghika

The fifth child of Prince Jan Ghika and Alexandrine Moret of Blaremberg, Vladimir Ghika was born in Constantinople on December 25, 1873. Since 1657, ten Ghika Princes had reigned in Moldavia or in Wallachia, of whom the last was Vladimir's Grandfather, Gregory V. With his father named ambassador to Paris, where he died in 1881, Princess Alexandrine had her sons Vladimir and Demeter enrolled in school in Toulouse. After concluding his studies in Paris, Vladimir was stricken in 1895, with angina pectoris and he had to give up on a career as a diplomat. Joining his brother Demeter in Rome in 1898, he was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Mathieu on April 13, 1902 who was passing through Rome. Considering to enter priesthood, he faced opposition from his mother who intervened in high places. Pope Saint Pius X himself advised the young man at that time to put off his decision out of regard for the Princess. Earning a doctorate in theology at the Dominican Minerva Institute in