RAMAZZOTTI, ANGELO. — Born in Milan on 3 Aug. 1800, died in Venice on 24 Sept. 1861. Founder of the Institute of Foreign Missions of Milan and Patriarch of Venice.
Having graduated in law at Pavia, after a few years of legal practice he undertook theological studies and was ordained a priest, almost immediately joining the Congregation of Missionary Oblates of the College of Rho (1829), to dedicate himself to missions among the people and to exercises for the clergy. A peacemaker among the populations in the Lombard hamlets during the years 1848–49, and founder of charitable works for war orphans, he offered his own house in Saronno to establish there the Seminary of the Missions of Oceania. Elected Bishop of Pavia on 3 May 1859 and, on 4 Feb. 1858, Patriarch of Venice, he continued his diligent and effective assistance to the missionary institute he had founded. To meet a desire expressed to him by the Holy Father, he had indeed presented (1853) a plan for a general seminary for missions, consisting of provincial institutes with their own missions. Yet he did not thereby attend with any less zeal or profit to the pastoral care of his office, first in one diocese and then in the other. Many of his works and initiatives have survived to this day. To ensure regularity in every sector of his governance, he held two synods, one diocesan and the other provincial, which earned him the warmest approval from Rome.
A man of outstanding virtue—many considered him a saint—Pius IX designated him to receive the red hat at the Consistory of Sept. 1861, but he died in that same month.