MACCHI, VINCENZO. - Cardinal, born at Capodimonte, diocese of Montefiascone, on 31 Aug. 1770, died at Rome on 30 Sept. 1860. Attached to the nunciature at Lisbon, when the French invaded Portugal in 1808 he replaced the nuncio Lorenzo Caleppi as chargé d’affaires.
Elected titular archbishop of Nisibi in 1818, he was apostolic nuncio to the Swiss Confederation and then, in Jan. 1820, nuncio at Paris; in 1826 he became cardinal.
In 1828 he was appointed apostolic legate of Ravenna and in 1835 became president of the Congregation for the Revision of Accounts; in the following year he became apostolic legate of Bologna, displaying in these offices a great sense of moderation and balance. He was also prefect of the Congregation of the Council (1834) and, from 1840, bishop of Palestrina; then prefect of the Signatura of Justice from 1841, bishop of Porto, S. Rufina and Civitavecchia, and vice-dean of the Sacred College (1844). Pio IX, in the first days of his pontificate, appointed him a member of a Commission entrusted with dealing with affairs of State.
Upon the death of Card. Micara (1847), he became bishop of Ostia and Velletri and dean of the Sacred College; at Ostia he took great interest in the restoration of the famous castle, and at Velletri he established evening schools, which he entrusted to the direction of the Dottrinari, restored the Cathedral, and erected the façade of the church of S. Lucia. He subsequently held the offices of datary of His Holiness and Secretary of Apostolic Briefs. His tomb is at SS. Giovanni e Paolo.