GARELLI, STANISLAO. - Priest, b. in Turin on 18 Sept. 1817, d. at Buttigliera on 19 May 1899. Having taken Holy Orders on 13 June 1840, he was appointed the following year prefect of the clergy at the Convitto di S. Maria in Turin, then almoner to the king and shortly afterwards canon of that Cathedral (1845). When Charles Albert offered him the appointment as bishop of Fossano, he declined the honour, continuing in his duties at court.
The devout address of homage which, together with two other Turin canons, he sent to Pius IX, grieved over the revolt of the Romagna (1859), caused much uproar in the press. The Minister of the Interior Farini demanded its retraction or his resignation, and G. lost the post of almoner on 10 May 1860, continuing always to enjoy the highest esteem of Victor Emmanuel II, who indeed sent him to Rome to the Pope, a first time to ask him for absolution from the censures incurred for the occupation of the Romagna and the renunciation of pontifical sovereignty over that territory, then a second time in 1871 on a special mission. G. was also on excellent terms with Umberto I, who decorated him with the commandership of the Mauritian Order. Designated by Pius IX in 1870 for the episcopal see of Susa, he refused this time as well and continued to devote all his activity to charitable works.
BIBL. L. Di Robilant, Un prete di ieri, il canonico S. G. di Rossana e s. Sebastiano, con documenti inediti, Turin 1901.
Niccolò Del Re