MARONGIO-DELRIO, Diego. – Archbishop of Sassari, b. at Bannari on 13 Sept. 1819, d. at Sassari on 5 Oct. 1905. A distinguished canonist and professor at the University of Sassari, M. also engaged in notable political activity as a municipal councillor, president of the provincial council, and deputy to the Subalpine Parliament from December 1849 to 1854, when he resigned in protest against the approval of the Siccardi Laws, which he had vigorously opposed as subversive of the rights of the Church.
The Sardinian electors accorded him wide support in the elections of 1857, but the government, to avoid the danger of a strong Catholic opposition in Parliament, declared priests with cure of souls ineligible, and among them included canons. Since M. was indeed a canon of the Sassari cathedral, his election was not validated. He then returned to his studies and priestly ministry until, in 1871, Pius IX appointed him Archbishop of Sassari. M. governed the archdiocese for more than three decades, admired for his pastoral zeal and deep spirit of piety. After the suppression of the theological faculty at the University of Sassari, he established a theological institute attached to the archbishopric. Leo XIII several times urged him to accept the cardinal’s hat, which his invaluable services merited, but he always declined this highest honour. Notable are two volumes of his pastoral letters (Milan 1893–94).
Marongio-Nurra, Emanuele. – Archbishop of Cagliari, b. at Bessude on 28 March 1794, d. at Cagliari on 12 Sept. 1866.
Formerly rector of the seminary and vicar general of the archdiocese of Sassari, in August 1842 he was raised to the archiepiscopal see of Cagliari. A zealous defender of the rights of the Church, he energetically opposed the application of the Piedmontese government’s laicising laws and in 1850 pronounced excommunication against officials who had conducted a search in the archives of the archiepiscopal “Contadoria” to examine the accounts of diocesan works.
He was then compelled to leave Sardinia and moved to Rome, from where he continued to guide his flock spiritually through a copious series of pastoral letters. During his exile, which lasted until 1866, he devoted himself to translating and commenting on St Gregory the Great’s *Regula pastoralis* (Turin 1858) and to a learned exegesis of the Psalms of David, which remained unpublished. Restored to his see on 1 March 1866, he was triumphantly welcomed by the people of Cagliari, but survived only a few months before his belated restoration.