DELLA GENGA SERMATTEI, GABRIELE – Cardinal, b. at Assisi on 4 Dec. 1801, d. at Rome on 10 Feb. 1861. Nephew of Leo XII, he was ordained priest on 26 Sept. 1830. Created Archbishop of Ferrara, he was sent to Vienna as extraordinary legate to attend the funeral of Emperor Francis I. On 11 July 1836 he was made a cardinal and was assigned the legation of the province of Ferrara, from which he passed to those of Urbino and Pesaro.
In 1847 he was summoned by Pius IX to Rome as president of the Congregation for Revision. He always sought to uphold order and discipline and, while avoiding the excesses of reaction, was very energetic toward liberals, so that during the Roman Republic in 1848 he was forced to flee to Spoleto. From there he joined the Pope at Gaeta and later was in Naples as a guest in the Dominican convent. When Rome was occupied by the French, he became part of the so-called red triumvirate, a cardinalial state commission charged with governing the city until the Pope’s return.