CAGLIERO, GIOVANNI. — Cardinal, born at Castel-nuovo d'Asti on 11 January 1838, died in Rome on 28 February 1926. Having met s. Giovanni Bosco for the first time in his native town (1850), he took away an indelible impression and the desire to follow him in his apostolic works. The following year, having entered the Salesian Oratory in Turin, he made rapid progress in the study of music, so much so that some delicate compositions by him, especially romances (Lo Spazzacamino, L'Exule, Il Marinaio, etc.), still remain. Ordained a priest in 1862, he carried out his ministry alongside the Saint until, in 1875, he departed from Genoa with the first group of Salesian missionaries for Argentina, where he worked in Buenos Aires, in the popular « Boca » district, among Italian emigrants. In 1879 the Salesians entered Patagonia, a savage land which very few missionaries had previously managed to reach. There they carried out an apostolate rich in fruitful spiritual results, so much so that Leo XIII, in 1884, established the vicariate of Northern and Central Patagonia, appointing C. its first vicar, as titular bishop of Magido. He, who in Turin held the office of spiritual director of the Pious Salesian Society and of first superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, departed in February 1885 for his new destination. S. Giovanni Bosco had said that Patagonia would be conquered through sweat and blood, and C. became its apostle, concerned with nothing other than leading souls to Christ; under his governance, 47,000 baptisms were administered, 15,000 of them to indigenous people.
Pius X, in 1904, appointed C. apostolic visitor to the dioceses of Bobbio, Piacenza, Savona, and Tortona, promoting him to titular archbishop of Sebaste; in 1909 he entrusted him with the office of apostolic delegate and extraordinary envoy to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, where he once again gave admirable proofs of prudence and fortitude, winning the gratitude of the Holy See and the esteem of the governments of those countries, which admired his pastoral virtues, combined with outstanding diplomatic gifts. Benedict XV, at the Consistory of 6 December 1915, created him cardinal of the title of S. Bernardo alle Terme; he was the first member of the Salesian family to be adorned with the Roman purple. He worked tirelessly in the governance of the Church, taking part in numerous religious events in various parts of Italy.
On 16 December 1920 he became suburbicarian bishop of Frascati. Despite his advanced age, he continued to display youthful activity, going very frequently among his flock and, in 1923, although eighty-five years old, presiding there over a highly successful Eucharistic Congress. He also devoted his final, tireless energies, with great fervor, to the development of Catholic Action.