PIAZZA, GIUSEPPE. - Priest, among the finest of nineteenth-century Rome, b. at Velletri on 18 March 1815, d. at Rome on 23 April 1893. Ordained in 1837, in 1839 parish priest of S. Maria in Trivio at Velletri, secretary of Cardinal Ludovico Micara, in 1847 vicar general of Subiaco and then, for a short time, professor, spiritual director, and rector of the Vatican Seminary, afterwards rector of the Seminary of Sutri.

Finally he was a beneficiary of S. Maria Maggiore and a minutante of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide for affairs of the Eastern rite, where he worked for some thirty years: numerous manuscripts attest to his industry and his uncommon competence in liturgy and Eastern law. From 1875 until his death he was spiritual director of the Roman Seminary; thirsting for God, he created around himself an atmosphere of fervor that left a deep mark on the ecclesiastical life of the Rome of Leo XIII.

He composed a manual of Meditations for clerics (2 vols., Rome 1898; 2nd ed., 4 vols., ibid. 1938), widely circulated in the seminaries of Italy.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: C. Sambucetti, Elogio funebre di mons. G. P., Rome 1893; G. Gusmini, Mons. G. P., Bologna 1919; G. De Luca, Il libro delle Meditazioni e il suo autore, in Sursum Corda, 21 (1938), pp. 1-8; M. De Camilla, Mons. G. P., in L'osserv. rom., 9 July 1950, p. 5, col. 1.

Antonio Piolanti

@incollection{ec9_piazza_giuseppe, author = {Piolanti, Antonio}, title = {Piazza, giuseppe}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1337}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/piazza-giuseppe} }

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Piazza, Giuseppe

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