FIRRAO, GIUSEPPE. - Cardinal, b. in Naples on 20 July 1736, d. there on 24 Jan. 1830. Namesake and kinsman of the Firrao (1669-1744) who played so large a part in the Vatican diplomacy of the 18th century, he entered the prelature under Clement XIII, who sent him as vice-legate to Ravenna, subsequently entrusting him with the government of other cities of the Papal State.
Pius VI raised him to titular archbishop of Petra on 25 Feb. 1782, accrediting him as nuncio to the Republic of Venice, in order to confer on him later the secretaryship of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. Pius VII enrolled him in the Sacred College on 23 Feb. 1801, assigning him the presbyteral title of St. Eusebius, which F. kept for all twenty-nine years of his cardinalate, without being transferred to that of St. Lawrence in Lucina even when he became the senior member of his Order.
Frail in health, he preferred to withdraw to Naples, devoted to a life of study and prayer, partly disappointing the hopes that his brilliant early career had aroused. He kept himself carefully aloof from the politics of his time, coming to Rome almost solely to take part in the Conclaves of Leo XII and of Pius VIII.