MORGANTI, PASQUALE. – Archbishop of Ravenna and noted author of ascetical writings, b. at Lesmo (Milan) on 13 Dec. 1852, d. at Ravenna on 18 Dec. 1921. He was a favourite pupil in Turin of St John Bosco. As spiritual director of the Milanese diocesan seminaries, he had among his pupils a fine array of future bishops.
Bishop of Bobbio in 1902, he remained there only two years, but these sufficed both to promote the restoration of the famous crypt of St Columbanus and to found the Catholic newspaper and new institutions of Catholic Action.
Translated in 1904 to the see of Ravenna and in 1909 also to that of Cervia, he strove in every way to lift the two dioceses out of the sorry state into which they had fallen, thanks to a now traditional anti-Christian propaganda by Mazzinian and socialist parties, so that not only in the cities but especially in the countryside the number of unbaptized children, civil marriages and funerals without cross or priest was increasing. Signs of this renewal were: special care for the seminary, which he enlarged and invigorated in spirit; his unremitting solicitude for the clergy, for whom he convened synods at Cervia and Ravenna, where none had been held for more than a hundred years; his three pastoral visits; 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 kindergartens entrusted to nuns, with attached Sunday oratories and workshops for young women; his valuable contribution to the press through the founding and collaboration in diocesan local newspapers; the vigorous impulse given to Catholic Action; the restoration in the city of public processions of Corpus Christi, despite the prevailing anti-clericalism; the churches restored to their former splendour; and the preparation for the Dante centenary of 1921.
A profound piety marked his ministry, and his ascetical books addressed to the clergy bear witness to it even today, especially Sic orabitis (1st ed., Rome 1915, now in its 5th ed., ibid. 1943, and translated into French and German), Vos divi amicos (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). The gratitude of clergy and people ensured that on 18 Dec. 1950 his remains were laid to rest in the cathedral.