Michele Di Pietro

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Michele Di Pietro (born January 18, 1747 in Albano Laziale , † July 2, 1821 in Rome , also Michele di Pietro ) was an Italian clergyman and cardinal of the Roman Church .

Life

Priest and bishop

Di Pietro, son of a wealthy merchant family, studied law in his hometown of Albano and in Rome, receiving his doctorate in June 1768 . He was ordained a priest on October 28, 1771 . In 1782 he became professor of law at the University of La Sapienza , which he remained until 1792. His brother Pasquale later became principal there. In 1784 Di Pietro founded a school for the deaf .

Pope Pius VI appointed him consultor of the Holy Office in January 1787 . In this function, Di Pietro checked, among other things, the resolutions of the Synod of Pistoia held in 1786 ; this examination served the Pope as the basis for the bull Auctorum fidei published in 1794 . As a result, Di Pietro took on important functions in other congregations. Pius VI appointed him on 21 February 1794 to the titular of Isauropolis , three days later Cardinal gave him Henry Benedict Stuart , the episcopal ordination . After France proclaimed the Roman Republic , Di Pietro was taken prisoner with other prelates in Castel Sant'Angelo on October 13, 1798 , but was released a few days later for a ransom. He initially sought protection with the family of his friend, Giuseppe Antonio Sala . In the summer of 1800 he participated as a representative of the Vatican State Secretariat in the negotiations for the Concordat with France , which was signed in July of the following year. He was considered a stubborn representative of church positions. On December 22, 1800, the new Pope Pius VII appointed him Latin (titular) Patriarch of Jerusalem (until 1802) and appointed him papal assistant to the throne on the same day .

Cardinalate

In the consistory of February 23, 1801, Pius VII accepted him in pectore into the college of cardinals , the vocation and assignment of the titular church of Santa Maria in Via were not announced until August of the following year. In 1802 he was also appointed cardinal protector of the Collegio Maronita and the Collegio Greco . Cardinal Di Pietro accompanied the Pope on his trip to France on the occasion of the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte on December 2nd, 1804. On May 24th, 1805 he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide . When Pius VII had to leave Rome in 1807, he entrusted Di Pietro as the city's Apostolic Delegate with the management of government affairs. The appointment was confirmed again in June 1809. When he was brought to France with Cardinal Ercole Consalvi in December of the same year , he passed the government to Emmanuele De Gregorio . After he declared Napoleon's second marriage to be uncanonical in 1810, the emperor forbade him and other cardinals to wear their official attire ("black cardinals"). In the same year he retired to Semur-en-Auxois , where the Cardinals Giulio Gabrielli and Carlo Oppizzoni were staying. In February 1811, Di Pietro, just appointed Apostolic Delegate in France, was brought back to Paris and imprisoned in Vincennes with Cardinal Gabrielli and Emmanuele De Gregorio. It was not until three months after the Fontainebleau Concordat was signed on January 25, 1813 that he was released and went into exile in Auxonne .

After the fall of Napoleon in 1814, Di Pietro returned to Rome and was appointed cardinal major penitentiary by Pius VII on May 20th . In the spring of 1815 he again took over the management of the affairs of state when the Pope had to flee briefly to Genoa after the occupation of Rome by Neapolitan troops . On March 8, 1816, he became Cardinal Bishop of Albano . On September 25, 1818, Di Pietro, considered ultramontane, was appointed Prefect of the Index Congregation . He was elected cardinal subdean on January 29, 1820 , and was assigned the suburbicarian diocese of Porto e Santa Rufina four months later .

Michele Di Pietro died in July 1821 at the age of 74. He was buried in the cathedral of his hometown Albano. His great-nephew Camillo Di Pietro (1806-1884) also became a cardinal in 1853.

literature

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predecessor Office successor
Giulio Maria della Somaglia Cardinal Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina
1820–1821 		Bartolomeo Pacca
Antonio Dugnani Cardinal Bishop of Albano
1816–1820 		Pietro Francesco Galleffi
Leonardo Antonelli Major cardinal
penalties 1814–1821 		Francesco Saverio Castiglioni
Antonio Dugnani Prefect of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide
1805–1814 		Lorenzo Litta
Georgius Maria Lascaris OTheat Titular Patriarch of Jerusalem
1800–1802 		Francesco Maria Fenzi
personal data
SURNAME Di Pietro, Michele
ALTERNATIVE NAMES di Pietro, Michele
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian clergyman, cardinal to the curia
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Albano Laziale
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1821
Place of death Rome