MAGLIONE. LUIGI. - Cardinal, b. at Casoria (Naples), 2 March 1877, d. there 22 Aug. 1944. Having completed his ecclesiastical studies and received priestly ordination (1901), he exercised an intense ministry on the outskirts of Rome.
He entered the Secretariat of State in 1908. In 1918 he was sent to Bern as representative of the Holy See to the Swiss Confederation, and at that particular moment he was able to demonstrate eminent diplomatic qualities; accordingly Benedict XV, in 1920, elected him titular archbishop of Caesarea in Palestine and apostolic nuncio to Switzerland. Six years later Pius XI called him to succeed Card. Cerretti in the nunciature in France, where he won immense prestige and cordial popularity. The same Pontiff, in the Consistory of 16 Dec. 1935, created him cardinal of S. Pudentiana. Prefect of the Congregation of the Council in 1938, the following year Pius XII, immediately upon being elected pontiff, appointed him his secretary of state; he was among the Pope’s principal collaborators during the tragic years of war.