FRANCESCO MARMAGGI.— Cardinal, born in Rome on 31 August 1876, died there on 3 November 1949. From a humble family, he was ordained priest in 1900 and devoted himself with fervor to ministry, particularly in his native district, to the great benefit of the youth.
Entering the Secretariat of State, he distinguished himself by an uncommon sense of balance in resolving grave problems during the First World War. After serving as Under-Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, he was elected in 1920 titular Archbishop of Adrianople and appointed first Apostolic Nuncio to Romania, where he played a very notable part in the return of King Ferdinand of Hohenzollern to the Church.
Transferred in 1923 to Czechoslovakia and thence in 1928 to Poland, he was created cardinal by Pius XI in the Consistory of 16 December 1935. Appointed by Pius XII, in the early days of his pontificate, Prefect of the Congregation of the Council, he dedicated all his activity to that important dicastery, continuing his beneficent, tireless work of charity toward the poor of Trastevere, who regarded him as a father.