Porcia (de Purlileis, di Porciglia)

PORCIA (de Purlileis, di PORCIGLIA). - A feudal family of the patriarchate of Aquileia, it had its possessions between the Tagliamento and the Livenza and held the advocacy of the Church of Concordia; a branch that crossed the Alps held princely rank with the county of Ortenburg in Carinthia.

A FEDERICO was vicedominus of the patriarchate (1381) and later held the bishopric of Comacchio; GIROLAMO was bishop of Torcello (1514-26), while in this age a GIACOMO was a good cultivator of humanistic studies. Another GIROLAMO, son of VENCESLAO, was pontifical nuncio at the court of Graz in 1570 and 1573; in 1595 he was extraordinary nuncio in Switzerland, d. in 1601. Better known is BARTOLOMEO, protonotary, b. in 1540, a friend of St. Charles Borromeo who ceded to him the abbey of Maggio in 1567. In 1570 he was apostolic visitor in lower Friuli, Aquileia and Gorizia; on 3 June 1573 he was sent as nuncio ad partes Germaniae and precisely to south-eastern Germany. In this office he made long journeys to regulate the fortunes of the Church in these countries, until he died at Prague on 12 Aug. 1578. His dispatches are found in Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland, III, P., pp. 1572-85; letters of his among those of St. Peter Canisius (v. P. Paschini, Un diplomatico friulano della Controriforma: B di P., in Memorie stor. forogiul., 30 [1934], pp. 27-74). GIROLAMO di Alfonso, b. around 1559, was referendary of the signature under Gregory XIV; in Apr. 1592 he was sent as nuncio to the court of Graz and collaborated in the re-establishment of Catholicism in the country; he took part in the Diet of Regensburg in 1594. He was named bishop of Adria on 7 Aug. 1598, but did not leave the nunciature until the end of 1606. He died at Porcia on 23 Aug. 1612 with a reputation as an excellent prelate. LEANDRO (Egidio at baptism), son of Fulvio, on his mother's side nephew of Card. Leandro di Colloredo, b. on 24 Dec. 1673, a Benedictine monk at S. Giustina in Padua, where he taught theology following the new methods; he then held this teaching post at S. Callisto in Rome. Abbot of S. Paolo in 1722 and consultor in the most important Roman congregations, he was elected bishop of Bergamo on 12 Apr. 1728 and created cardinal on the 20th. He left the bishopric on 22 Nov. 1730. In the Conclave of 1740 he was on the point of being created pope; he died on 10 June, before the election of the new Pontiff.

Pio Paschini