ALIMONDA, GAETANO. – Cardinal, born in Genoa on 23 October 1818, died there on 31 May 1891. He studied at the seminary of Genoa and, having been ordained a priest on 10 June 1843, was appointed vice-rector and bursar of the same seminary. The capitular vicar, Msgr. Ferrari, appointed him rector, an office he held until 1854. A course of apologetic conferences delivered in Genoa in 1864 revealed him as one of the greatest orators of his time. Pius IX, on 21 September 1877, elected him bishop of Albenga. Leo XIII, in the consistory of 12 May 1879, created him cardinal of the title of S. Maria in Traspontina and called him to Rome, where he remained until 1883, when, upon the death of Msgr. Gastaldi, he appointed him archbishop of Turin. His episcopate in Turin was distinguished by extensive apostolic work. He was a friend and supporter of s. Giovanni Bosco and had PASSAGLIA, CARLO (v.) Franchi (v.) return to God. One of the most distinguished precursors of conciliation, in 1887, in full agreement with Leo XIII, he published the study: I voti degli italiani per la pace religiosa. Its fundamental principles were these: Italians must wish the Pope to be free, Rome to retain its historic destiny, and their national life to unfold in friendship with the Pope. The Roman question – he wrote – and, in its very special aspects, one may say the question of the Italian family.
Among his works, besides 12 collections of homilies, the following should be remembered: Il dogma dell'Immacolata - Ragionamenti, Genoa 1856; L'uomo sotto la legge del sovranaturale, ibid. 1864–67; I problemi del sec. XIX, ibid. 1876; Il mio episcopato, ibid. 1880; Il sovranaturale nell'uomo, ibid. 1881; Panegirici, Turin 1886; Lutero e l'Italia, ibid. 1888; Lettere al canonico Vinelli, Genoa 1892.