OPPIZZONI CARLO. – Cardinal, born in Milan on 15 April 1769, died in Bologna on 13 April 1855. Having completed his studies in his native city and been ordained a priest, he devoted himself fervently to parish ministry: at the end of 1801 he took part in the assemblies of Lyon, strenuously defending the rights of the Church.
Elected archbishop of Bologna on 20 September 1802, he was created and proclaimed cardinal by Pius VII in the Consistory of 26 March 1804. In 1809 he was one of the cardinals who refused to attend Napoleon’s marriage to Maria Luisa, and for this reason was confined to Vincennes, where he remained until 1813. Returning to Bologna, he was received triumphantly by the population and, during his long episcopate of fifty-three years, left enduring traces of tireless apostolic work and rare gifts of governance. He consecrated the high altar of the church of the Madonna di S. Luca, restored the distinctive festival of the «addobbi», also called the «decennial» because it was celebrated with great solemnity every ten years, in rotation, for each parish; he devoted the utmost care to the formation of the clergy and, as arch-chancellor of the University, gave new life to the ancient Studium, establishing instruction in political economy, natural history, and agricultural science.
Legate a latere for the four Legations from 21 March to 31 May 1831, during a particularly delicate period, he pursued a political course inspired by great serenity and carried out a sagacious and enlightened legislative work. During the events of 1848 he demonstrated great prudence and at every moment courageously defended his diocesan faithful. On 16 May 1849, the last day of the Bolognese resistance against the Austrians besieging the city, the ailing cardinal, after two missions that had gone unheeded, went to the camp of General Wimpfen together with Senator Zanolini and succeeded in obtaining honorable terms of surrender. He died leaving the poor as his heirs and stipulating that no eulogy of his life should be delivered.