DELLA CERDA (Cerdano), Antonio. - Theologian and cardinal of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, born at Santa Margherita in Majorca in 1390, died in Rome on 12 September 1459. While serving as procurator general in Rome
DELLA CHIESA, BERNARDINO. - Francesco, bishop of Peking, born in Venice on 8 May 1644, died at Lin-tsing on 21 December 1721. Consecrated titular bishop of Argos in 1680, he was sent to China.
His special mandate was to reconcile Bishop Francesco Pallu with his missionaries, whom Pallu had suspended *a divinis* and thus rendered unfit for the apostolate. Despite Pallu’s protests, Bernardino lifted the suspension imposed on the 23 missionary fathers, appealing to Rome. The matter would have been settled that same year had Pallu, upon his death, not appointed Gregorio Lopez as his apostolic vicar, whom the French missionaries insisted on recognizing. Della Chiesa peacefully resolved this dispute by dividing the region territorially. He assigned Nanjing to Lopez as his see and appointed Fr. Giovanni-Francesco Nicolai as his secretary, later consecrated bishop, while retaining for himself the provinces of Zhejiang, Hubei, Sichuan, and Guizhou. He chose as his visiting companion Fr. Basilio da Gemona, who later became apostolic vicar of Shaanxi. Far more troublesome disputes arose from King Peter II of Portugal, who claimed the right of patronage over these missions. As a result, Della Chiesa was appointed bishop of Nanjing in 1692 and, even before receiving the papal bulls from Rome, was transferred to the see of Peking. He arrived there in 1700 but was unable to establish his residence, as he was unwelcome to missionaries of different orders and nationalities, and even to his own confreres in Shandong, who claimed exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. He therefore took up residence in the city of Lin-tsing-chow, in a private house 500 km from his episcopal see, though he occasionally entered it secretly to administer the sacrament of Confirmation. Always beneficent but persecuted and slandered, he ended his life as a solitary. He was buried in a Christian’s field by his faithful friend, Fr. Carlo Orazio da Castorano.