FRANCESCO DI PAOLA CASSETTA. — Cardinal,
b. in Rome on 12 Aug. 1841, d. there on 23 Mar. 1919.
Having completed his studies in the Roman seminary schools
and earned degrees in theology and in utroque iure, he was
ordained priest on 10 June 1865. He had wished to go on
mission among the infidels, but, in obedience to his superiors,
he remained in Rome, where he devoted himself to the Christian
education of youth. On 27 Nov. 1884 he was elected titular
Bishop of Amata and the following year was appointed president
of the night schools of religion, while at the same time holding
the office of president of the Pontifical Academy of the
Immaculate Conception. On 25 Nov. 1887 he was promoted
titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and named secret almoner to
Leo XIII. On 19 Mar. 1895 he became titular Patriarch of
Antioch and vice-gerent of Rome, serving as a valuable
collaborator of Card. Parocchi in the ecclesiastical government
of the Eternal City. On 1 Apr. 1899 he had the singular good
fortune of conferring priestly ordination in his private chapel
upon Eugenio Pacelli, now the reigning Pontiff Pius XII. Created a cardinal by Leo XIII on 19 June 1899 with the title
of S. Crisogono, he subsequently became Bishop of Sabina
(27 May 1905), of Frascati (27 Nov. 1911), and sub-dean of
the Sacred College. He was also prefect of the Congregations
of the Council and of Studies and librarian of the Roman
Church.
In Sabina he visited his vast and mountainous diocese twice,
and in Frascati he gave special care to the seminary and
celebrated with great solemnity the centenary of the Madonna
of Capocroce. He was a generous and ardent promoter of all
the most modern forms of Catholic Action, his life and work
being marked by the most abundant charity. His considerable
family inheritance was left by testamentary disposition to the
Congregation of Propaganda Fide for the poor missions.