GUSMANI, GIORGIO. — Cardinal, b. at Gazzaniga (Bergamo) Dec. 9, 1855, d. at Bologna Aug. 24, 1921. He studied at the Roman Seminary and at the University of Padua, where he earned a degree in letters. After serving as archpriest of Clusone and of S. Alessandro in Colonna at Bergamo, where he carried on intense religious and social activity, he was elected by Pius X in 1910 bishop of Foligno, where he completely renewed the diocese, demonstrating ardent pastoral zeal. Benedict XV, on Sept. 8, 1914, two days after his election to the papacy, chose him as his successor in the archiepiscopal see of Bologna, and in the Consistory of Dec. 9, 1915, created him cardinal with the title of S. Susanna. During the war of 1915-18 and in the immediate postwar period, G. carried on untiring activity, exhorting and comforting, contributing above all to spiritual recovery and the resolution of the gravest problems.
Besides highly esteemed pastoral letters, many of his publications remain, including the following: Sommario storico della letteratura italiana (Bergamo 1893); La vita spirituale (ascetic conferences in four volumes; ibid. 1900); Vertova e la sua insigne Parrocchiale (ibid. 1904); La perfezione sacerdotale (very brief meditations for every day of the year, Turin 1917); Mons. Giuseppe Piazza (on the 25th anniversary of his death, Bologna 1918); Metodo per preparare i fanciulli ai SS. Sacramenti della Confessione e della Comunione (ibid. 1919); La parrocchia e la vita parrocchiale dei nostri giorni (ibid. 1920).
Mario De Camillis