ALTIERI, LUDOVICO. – Cardinal, born in Rome on 11 July 1805, to Paluzzo and Maria Anna of Saxony; died at Albano on 11 August 1867. After having been a participating secret chamberlain of Leo XII, he was appointed by Gregory XVI secretary of the Congregation of Studies. In 1826 he was elected titular archbishop of Ephesus and nuncio in Vienna, with the dignity of pro legate a latere; the principal task of his mission was to combat the Josephist laws. Among other things, A. succeeded in obtaining the restitution of the property of the Greek-Ruthenian College of Rome. Created cardinal in the consistory of 14 December 1840, Gregory XVI published his appointment only on 23 April 1845 and assigned him the deaconry of S. Maria in Portico, which was created for him as a presbyteral title. In 1847 Pius IX appointed him president of Rome and the Comarca. The following year, on the Pontiff’s instructions, he delivered the inaugural address of the Council of Parliament at the Palazzo della Cancelleria. He also held the office of secretary of memorials. In 1850 he was called, together with Della Genga Sermattei and Vannicelli Casoni, to serve on the cardinalitial commission charged with restoring the Papal Government, and subsequently became camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (1857), archpriest of S. Giovanni in Laterano, and president of the Council of State for finance. In the consistory of 17 September 1860 he opted for the suburbicarian see of Albano, where he carried out fervent pastoral work. When cholera broke out in August 1867, A. immediately went to his diocese, assisting the sick, carrying the Viaticum barefoot to the dying, and generously giving away everything he had in the episcopal palace. Struck by the disease, he died peacefully. In the concistorial allocution of 20 September 1867, Pius IX extolled his sacrifice in moving words.
Several addresses delivered at the Academy of Catholic Religion and a dissertation on the centenary of the death of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul remain by A.; it was published posthumously under the care of Msgr. Agostino Bartolini.
Mario De Camillis