GUSMINI, GIORGIO. - Cardinal, b. at Gazzaniga (Bergamo) on 9 Dec. 1855, d. at Bologna on 24 Aug. 1921. He studied at the Roman Seminary and at the University of Padua, where he earned a degree in letters. After having been archpriest of Clusone and of S. Alessandro in Colonna in Bergamo, carrying on an intense religious and social activity, he was elected by Pius X in 1910 bishop of Foligno, where he completely renewed the diocese, showing ardent pastoral zeal. Benedict XV, on 8 Sept. 1914, two days after his election to the pontificate, wanted him as his successor in the archiepiscopal see of Bologna, and in the Consistory of 9 Dec. 1915 created him cardinal of the title of S. Susanna. During the war of 1915-18 and in the immediate postwar period G. carried on tireless activity, exhorting and comforting, contributing above all to the spiritual recovery and to the resolution of the most serious problems.
There remain from him, besides greatly appreciated pastoral letters, numerous publications, among which the following are remembered: 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).
Bibliography
Mario De Camillis