GAROFALI, VINCENZO. – Restorer of the Lateran Canons Regular, born in Rome on 29 January 1760, died there on 3 February 1839. In 1781 he entered the Canons Regular of the Most Holy Savior. He completed his humanistic and theological education in Bologna under the guidance of Abbot Trombelli. He taught theology in the canonry of S. Pietro in Vincoli, which he ably defended against the subversive laws of the revolutionaries, preventing its occupation and alienation. From 1800 to 1810, G. worked wisely, as procurator general abbot, to rebuild the houses of his Order, but had to yield in the face of the Napoleonic suppression and in 1813 went into voluntary exile in Naples. Returning the following year, at the same time as Pope Pius VII, he not only set about reviving and holding together the scattered members of the Congregation, but, with rare prudence, successfully brought to completion in 1823 the negotiations for the merger into a single Order of the two Italian Congregations of Canons Regular, the Lateran and the Rhenish (v. CANONICI REGOLARI DI SANT'AGOSTINO : III. Congregazioni tuttora esistenti). He was general abbot of his Order from 1823 to 1829. For many years he enjoyed the friendship of Gregory XVI, who in 1832 appointed him titular archbishop of Laodicea.
