OREGLIA DI SANTO STEFANO, LUIGI. - Cardinal, b. at Benevagienna (Mondovì) on 9 July 1828, d. at Rome on 7 Dec. 1913. Ordained priest in 1851, he served at the Secretariat of State until 1863, when he was sent as internuncio to the Netherlands. Elected titular archbishop of Damiata on 4 May 1866, he became apostolic nuncio to Belgium and from there, in 1868, was transferred to Portugal.
Created cardinal by Pius IX in the Consistory of 22 Dec. 1873, with the title of S. Anastasia, he opted in the Consistory of 24 March 1884 for the suburbicarian see of Palestrina, where he restored the cathedral and various churches in the towns of the diocese. Upon becoming dean of the Sacred College, he received on 24 May 1889 the see of Porto and S. Rufina, and at the death of Cardinal Monaco he passed to the sees of Ostia and Velletri (30 November 1896). He was also prefect of the Congregation of Ceremonies, commendatory abbot of SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio alle Tre Fontane, and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church from 1884. He played a major role in the Conclave of 1903 and formally entrusted the secretary of the Sacred College, Msgr. R. Merry del Val, with the task of urging Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto to accept the papacy.