LITTA, Lorenzo. — Cardinal, born in Milan on 23 Feb. 1756, died at Monte Flavio in Sabina on 10 May 1820. He studied in Rome at the Collegio Clementino and was ordained a priest in 1789.
Appointed titular archbishop of Thebes on 23 June 1793, he was sent to the nunciature in Poland at a particularly difficult time. Arriving in Warsaw in 1794, he successfully defended the rights of the Church before Kościuszko on several occasions and, through his intervention, saved the lives of many priests and faithful. After the third partition of Poland, which marked the end of that state’s independence, L. was sent as extraordinary ambassador to St. Petersburg with the task of attending the coronation ceremonies of Paul I in 1797 and persuading the Emperor to grant Polish Catholics full religious freedom. His mission ended abruptly in 1799. Created cardinal by Pius VII in 1801, he was deported to France together with the Pope in 1809. After the fall of Napoleon he returned to Rome, where he became cardinal-bishop of Sabina and prefect of Propaganda. He died suddenly during a pastoral visit in Sabina.