RAMAZZOTTI, ANGELO. — Born in Milan on 3 August 1800, died in Venice on 24 September 1861. Founder of the Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan and patriarch of Venice.
After graduating in law at Pavia, and following several years of legal practice, he undertook theological studies and was ordained a priest. Almost immediately he joined the Congregation of the Oblate Missionaries of the College of Rho (1829), devoting himself to popular missions and retreats for the clergy. A peacemaker among the populations of the Lombard villages during the years 1848–49, and founder of charitable works for war orphans, he offered one of his houses in Saronno for the establishment of the Seminary of the Missions of Oceania. Elected bishop of Pavia on 29 May 1850 and, on 4 February 1858, patriarch of Venice, he continued his diligent and effective support of the missionary institute he had founded. Indeed, in order to respond to a wish expressed to him by the Holy Father, he had presented (1853) a plan for a general seminary for the missions, composed of provincial institutes, each with its own missions. This did not cause him to devote less zeal and effectiveness to the pastoral care of his office, first in one and then in the other diocese. Many of his works and initiatives have survived to the present day. To ensure regularity in every sector of his administration, he held two synods, one diocesan and the other provincial, which earned him the warmest approval from Rome.
A man of outstanding virtues—quite a few considered him a saint—he was designated by Pius IX to receive the cardinal’s hat at the Consistory of September 1861, but he died that same month.