MARINI, NICCOLÒ. - Born in Rome on 20 Aug. 1843, died there on 27 July 1923. Having graduated in philosophy and theology and in utroque iure, he was ordained a priest in 1866; he devoted himself fervently to preaching and carried on intense journalistic activity, founding, shortly after 1870, a Catholic daily newspaper, Il buon senso. At the same time he devoted himself to Catholic Action, establishing the women’s circle “Gaetana Agnesi.”
M. carried on ardent activity on behalf of the Christian East and for the union of the dissident Churches. To this end he founded, in 1896, the journal Il Bestarione, and four years later Il Crisostomo, making numerous journeys to the Holy Land, Egypt, Greece, and North Africa. Benedict XV, in the Consistory of 4 Dec. 1916, created him cardinal of S. Maria in Domnica. In 1918, when the new Congregation “for the Eastern Church” was established, he chose M. as its secretary; in 1922, worn down by advanced age and failing health, M. resigned his high office into the hands of Pius XI. He was a learned and gifted writer, treating various subjects with clarity, especially those concerning the Christian East.