MORGANTI, PASQUALE. - Archbishop of Ravenna and well-known author of ascetical writings, b. at Lesmo (Milan) on 13 Dec. 1852, d. at Ravenna on 18 Dec. 1921. He was a favourite pupil of St. John Bosco in Turin. As spiritual director of the diocesan seminaries of Milan, he had among his students a fine array of bishops.
Bishop of Bobbio in 1902, he remained there only two years, which sufficed both to promote the restoration of the famous crypt of St. Columbanus and to found the Catholic newspaper and the new institutions of Catholic Action.
Promoted in 1904 to the see of Ravenna and in 1909 also to that of Cervia, he strove in every way to raise the two dioceses from the sad conditions in which they found themselves, owing to a by then traditional anti-Christian propaganda carried on by Mazzinian and socialist parties, so that not only in the city but especially in the countryside the number was growing of unbaptized children, of merely civil marriages, of funerals without Cross or priest. Signs of this renewal were: a special care for the Seminary, which he enlarged and quickened in spirit; the assiduous solicitude he showed for priests, for whom he convened the Synods of Cervia and of Ravenna, where none had been held for more than a hundred years; the three pastoral visitations; the opening of a Salesian Institute for students and artisans; the reform of sacred music in the Cathedral; the creation of new parishes; the founding of nurseries, entrusted to nuns, with an attached festive oratory and workshop for young women; the valuable contribution given to the press through the founding of and collaboration with local diocesan newspapers; the vigorous impulse given to Catholic Action; the restoration in the city of the public processions of Corpus Christi, despite the prevailing anticlericalism; the churches restored to their former splendour; the preparation for the Dante centenary of 1921.
A deep piety distinguished his ministry, and his ascetical books addressed to the clergy bear witness to it even today, especially the Sic orabitis (1st ed. Rome 1915, now in its 5th ed., ibid. 1943, and translated into French and German), the Vos divi amicus (1st ed. Rome 1920; 2nd ed. ibid. 1926; translated into German) and Maria S.ma ai suoi sacerdoti (posthumous ed. Milan 1928; 3rd ed. ibid. 1947). Out of gratitude on the part of clergy and people, on 18 Dec. 1950 his remains were laid to rest in the Cathedral.
Bibliography2 works
Alfredo Maria Cavagna