Ponza di San Martino, Gustavo - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 1051

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PONZA DI SAN MARTINO, GUSTAVO. - Statesman, born at Cuneo on 6 Jan. 1810, died at Dronero on 6 Sept. 1876.

Having entered the administrative career at a young age, before he was forty he was already a senior official of the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1849 he discharged with great tact and energy the duties of intendant (prefect) of Genoa at a time of unrest. Deputy and then senator, he was Minister of the Interior, Sardinian commissioner at Massa in 1859, and two years later lieutenant general at Naples.

The most important event in P.'s life was the mission entrusted to him by Vittorio Emanuele II in Sept. 1870, to Pio IX, in order to persuade the Pontiff not to oppose the royal occupation of Rome. Bearer of the letter addressed to the Pope, he, as is known, did not succeed in inducing the Pontiff to abandon at least the formal defence of his legitimate rights, and a few days later came the episode of the breach at Porta Pia, that is, the use of force, which only apparently seemed to resolve the Roman question.

Article illustration — PONZIANO, CIMITERO di - Cemetery area and remains of the Basilica (4th cent.) - Rome, cemetery of Ponziano.
(by courtesy of Prof. E. Jasi)

In the last five years of his life, P. withdrew from active politics, devoting himself to philanthropic institutions, whose presidency he energetically held in his native Piedmont. Sebastiano Tecchio commemorated him eloquently at the Senate session of 27 Dec. 1876.

BIBL.: obituary in Unità Cattolica, 10 Sept. 1876; A. Colombo, Lettere ined. di Vittorio Emm. II., in Rass. st. del Risorgimento, 2 (1934), pp. 281-92. Renzo U. Montini