GAROFALI, VINCENZO. - Restorer of the Canons Regular Lateranense, b. in Rome on 29 Jan. 1760, d. there on 3 Feb. 1839. In 1781 he entered among the Canons Regular of the Most Holy Savior. He completed his humanistic and theological education at 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 skillfully, as abbot procurator general, at the reconstruction of the houses of his Order, but he had to yield before the Napoleonic suppression, and in 1813 he went into voluntary exile at Naples. Having returned the following year, at the same time as Pope Pius VII, he not only thought of reviving and keeping united the scattered members of the Congregation, but with rare prudence he successfully brought to completion, in 1823, the negotiations for the fusion into a single Order of the two Italian Congregations of Canons Regular, the Lateranense and the Rhenish (v. CANONICI REGOLARI DI SANT'AGOSTINO : III. Congregazioni tuttora esistenti). He was abbot general of his Order from 1823 to 1829. He had enjoyed for many years the friendship of Gregory XVI, who in 1832 named him titular archbishop of Laodicea.
Although he was a man of government, G. never abandoned his studies. Among his works are remembered the Illustrazione del codice inedito di Bonizone intitolato « Decretum » (Rome 1837); Biblioteca compendiosa degli uomini illustri can. reg. lat. scritta dal Cavalieri ed aumentata di nuovi articoli da mons. G. V. (Velletri 1836).
Bibliography
Giorgio Idamo Scatena