EVANGELISTI, LUIGI. - Papal colonel, b. in Roma on 21 May 1821, d. there at the beginning of the following century. He began his military career on 1 May 1840 as a cadet in the Dragoons. Captain commanding a squadron of mounted gendarmes, on 19 May 1860, under the orders of Colonel De Pimodan, he routed at the Grotte di S. Lorenzo (Viterbo) a Garibaldian band commanded by Zambianchi, and in Sept. of the same year he was part of the De Mortillet mobile column, fighting at Pontecorvo and elsewhere. Promoted major, on 6 Oct. he was entrusted with bringing aid to Papal soldiers held prisoner in northern Italy. Colonel on 27 July 1867, he was given command of the entire corps of gendarmerie, distinguishing himself in safeguarding order and disrupting the renewed plots of the innovators. Mentioned with particular distinction by Pro-Minister Kanzler in his report on the military events of the autumn of 1867—during which, among other things, E. narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a bomb thrown in Piazza Colonna—after 20 Sept. 1870 he withdrew into private life.
EVANGELISTI, LUIGI
BIBL.: For the clash at Grotte di S. Lorenzo cf. Giornale di Roma of 21 May 1860. For the rest v.: G. G. Franco, I Crociati di S. Pietro, 3 vols., Roma 1869–70, V. indices; A. Vigevano, La campagna delle Marche e dell'Umbria, ivi 1920, passim; id., La fine dell'esercito pontificio, ivi 1922, passim; P. Dalla Torre, L'anno di Mentana, Torino 1938, passim. Paolo Dalla Torre
Cite this article
“EVANGELISTI, LUIGI.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V (1950), p. 550. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/evangelisti-luigi.