EVANGELISTI, Luigi. – Pontifical colonel, born in Rome on 21 May 1821, died there at the beginning of the following century. He began his military career on 19 May 1840 as a cadet in the Dragoons. As captain commanding a squadron of papal gendarmerie, on 19 May 1860, under Colonel De Pimodan, he routed a Garibaldi band led by Zambianchi at the Grotte di S. Lorenzo (Viterbo), or in September of the same year he took part in the De Mortillet mobile column fighting at Pontecorvo and elsewhere. Promoted major on 6 October, he was tasked with bringing aid to pontifical soldiers imprisoned in northern Italy. Colonel on 27 July 1867, he took command of the entire gendarmerie corps, distinguishing himself in safeguarding order and foiling renewed plots by innovators. Cited with special mention by Pro-Minister Kanzler in his report on the military events of autumn 1867, during which Evangelisti nearly fell victim to a bomb thrown in Piazza Colonna; after 20 September 1870 he retired to 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 Circolari di S. Pietro*, 3 vols., Rome 1860–70, see indices; A. Vignevano, *La campagna delle Marche e dell'Umbria*, ibid. 1920, passim; id., *La fine dell'esercito pontificio*, ibid. 1922, passim; P. Dalla Torre, *L'anno di Mantova*, Turin 1938, passim. Paolo Dalla Torre