RANDI, LORENZO ILARIONE. — Cardinal, born at Bagnacavallo (Faenza) on 18 July 1818, died in Rome on 20 December 1887. Having entered the prelature in order to pursue a career in the state administration, he established himself there brilliantly, thanks in part to the protection of Cardinal Antonelli, and had the merit of bringing the difficult problem of opening a sound railway network in the Papal States toward a rapid solution.
Extraordinary commissioner and apostolic delegate in the Marches and in the provinces of Pesaro and Urbino (1856), he succeeded through skill and cunning in thwarting every revolutionary attempt, especially at Ancona, during the troubled year of 1859.
The work he carried out in such difficult circumstances facilitated his rise to the offices of vice-camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, governor of Rome, and director general of police (June 1866); R. was thus responsible for safeguarding public order during the crisis of autumn 1867, with the complete failure of the extensive pseudo-insurrectionary plots then being devised, while during the extreme events of 1870 he remained faithful and vigilant at his post until the last hour of the morning of 20 September, transferring the most confidential papers of the department over which he presided.
Pius IX, in the Consistory of 15 March 1875, created him cardinal in pectore and published his appointment on the following 17 September, with the diaconal title of S. Maria in Cosmedin.
A learned and profound student of numismatics, he spent his final years at Palazzo Taverna completing his precious collection of papal coins and medals which, acquired by Leo XIII in 1901, renewed the Numismatic Cabinet of the Vatican Library, whose collections had already been largely dispersed during the Jacobin and Napoleonic occupations.