MARINI, ERCOLANO. - Theologian and archbishop, b. at Matelica on 21 Nov. 1866, d. at Rome on 16 Nov. 1950. A priest in 1889, he was successively parish priest at Terricoli (1892), provost of the Chapter of Matelica (1893), prior of the Chapter of Terni (1899), vicar general of Spoleto (1901), bishop of Norcia (1905-1915), archbishop of Amalfi (1915-45). During his long governance he attended to the ascetical and liturgical formation of his clergy and his people and gave wide development to works of social assistance (Conferences of St. Vincent, nurseries, orphanages, among which the Pontifical Orphanage of Amalfi, founded for war orphans in 1919, is notable).
A man of profound interior life, he nourished his piety in the constant contemplation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, on which he published numerous ascetical-dogmatic works that greatly contributed to the birth of Christian spirituality with a Trinitarian background: Gli splendori del Credo nella luce della S.ma Trinità (3rd ed., Amalfi 1939; Spanish trans., Barcelona 1945); La S.ma Trinità e la vita cristiana (Amalfi 1939); La S.ma Trinità e la morte cristiana (ibid. 1939); La S.ma Trinità e il tempio cristiano (ibid. 1941); Candida Rosa: la S.ma Trinità in Maria, negli Angeli, nei Santi (Finalpia 1944); S. Giuseppe nelle irradiazioni della S.ma Trinità (Rome 1945); La S.ma Trinità nei Sacramenti della Chiesa (2nd ed., ibid. 1949); Dal culto dell'Eucaristia al culto della Trinità (unpublished), and many other pamphlets.
Having retired to Rome (1945), with the title of archbishop of Adana, he attended to the reprinting of his works.
Bibliography2 works
(1949), p. 504 (on M.'s theological method); anon., Mons. E. M., in L'Osservatore romano, 19 Nov. 1950, p. 2, coll. 5-6. G. Palatucci, Nel tricesimo di mons. E. M., ibid. 16 Dec. 1950, p. 1, coll. 1-2.