FRANZELIN, Giovanni Battista. – Theologian and cardinal, born on 15 April 1816 at Altino (South Tyrol), died in Rome on 11 February 1886. After completing his classical studies at Bolzano under the Franciscans, he entered the Society of Jesus in Graz. After teaching at Tarnopol in Poland, in 1845 he was sent to Rome to the Gregorian University, where, under the guidance of Giovanni Perrone and Carlo Passaglia, he excelled among his fellow students.
In 1848, due to the anti-Jesuit disturbances in Italy, F. was sent to continue his studies in England, at Lord Clifford’s Ugbrook Castle in Devonshire. A few months later he moved to Louvain. In 1849 he was entrusted with teaching Sacred Scripture at the scholasticate in Vals, France. At Le Puy, toward the end of the same year, he was ordained. In 1850 he was recalled to the Collegio Romano as assistant to Fr. Perrone, also teaching Oriental languages, which he mastered perfectly, along with Greek, German, Italian, English, French, and Polish. From 1853 to 1857 he held the position of prefect of studies and confessor to the students at the German College. From 1857 to 1876 he held the chair of dogmatic theology, succeeding Passaglia. The fruit of his gifted teaching were various theological treatises that earned him worldwide fame. He served as papal theologian at the First Vatican Council (1870), as consultor to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the Council, Extraordinary Affairs, and as qualificator of the Holy Office. Pius IX created him cardinal in the consistory of 3 April 1876, appointing him a member of several Sacred Congregations and later prefect of the Congregation of Indulgences.
His most celebrated works include: *De Eucharistiae sanctam et sacrificio* (Rome 1868); *De Sacramentis in genere* (ibid. 1868); *De Deo trino secundum personam* (ibid. 1869); *De divina Traditione et Scriptura* (ibid. 1870); *De Deo uno secundum naturam* (ibid. 1870); *De Verbo incarnato* (ibid. 1870); *Examen doctrinae Macarii Bulgarum episcopi schismatici et Iosephi Langen neopræstinati Bonnemis* (ibid. 1876). These works went through multiple editions.