FALZACAPPA, GIOVAN FRANCESCO. - Cardinal, b. at Corneto on 7 Apr. 1767, d. at Rome on 18 Nov. 1840.
Having entered the prelature at a very young age, Pius VI entrusted him with the presidency of the commission established to assist the French priests exiled in Rome after the outbreak of the Revolution; Pius VII made him a Vatican canon and secretary of the S. Congregation of Good Government. Confined to Capraia because he had refused to submit to the Napoleonic regime, in 1814 he was appointed secretary of the S. Congregation of the Council and titular bishop of Athens.
In the Consistory of 10 March 1823 he was preconized bishop of Ancona and Numana and created cardinal of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo; Leo XII entrusted him with the prefectures of the supreme tribunal of the Segnatura. Under Pius VIII he was transferred to the suburbicarian diocese of Albano and, under Gregory XVI, on 22 Nov. 1839, to the dioceses, united pro illa vice, of Porto e S. Rufina and Civitavecchia, and was appointed president
of the Census. F. held all these offices with profound zeal and most ardent piety, thereby acquiring great authority in the Sacred College and in the Roman Curia.
Renzo U. Montini