LÉPICIER, ALEXIS-HENRI-MARIE. - Cardinal and theologian of the Order of the Servants of Mary, b. at Vaucouleurs (Lorraine) on 28 Feb. 1863, d. in Rome on 20 May 1936. A religious at the age of 15 in London and ordained a priest at 22 (1885), he was sent to Rome to the Athenaeum of Propaganda Fide, where he brilliantly obtained his degree in philosophy and theology. The future Cardinal Satolli hailed him as the most accomplished Thomist among his disciples.
Having returned to England in 1890 as master of novices, he went on to replace Satolli in the chair of dogmatic theology at the Athenaeum of Propaganda Fide (1892).
A consultor of various Roman Congregations, he was given the office of apostolic visitor of the dioceses of England and Scotland. At the same time he passed through all the hierarchical ranks of the Order: founder and first rector of the international College of St. Alexis Falconieri in Rome, then consultor general, procurator general, and in 1913 prior general of the Order. On 22 May 1924 he was consecrated titular archbishop of Tarsus and appointed apostolic visitor in the East Indies; a year later he was sent as apostolic visitor to Eritrea and Abyssinia. Made a cardinal in 1927 and shortly afterwards appointed Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, he represented the Supreme Pontiff as his legate, in 1929 at the centenary celebrations of St. Joan of Arc at Orléans, in 1930 at the International Eucharistic Congress of Carthage, and in 1935 at the regional Council of Malta.
Among his numerous publications, mention should be made of the Institutiones theologiae dogmaticae ad textum s. Thomae (25 vols., Rome 1901 ff.).
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Gabriele Roschini