RICCI, LORENZO. – Jesuit, 18th superior general of the Order, born in Firenze on 2 August 1703, died in Rome in Castel S. Angelo on 24 November 1775.
He entered the Society of Jesus in 1718 and taught rhetoric and philosophy at Siena (1725–31), theology at Rome (1743–49); thereafter he was spiritual director of the students at the Collegio Romano (1751–55), then secretary to the superior general L. Centurione (1755–58), and finally superior general (25 May 1758).
from the other 5 editions up to 1923. In November 1882 he entered as a student-assistant at the Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze, beginning that life of work and study which was to lead him first to the position of director general of the Fine Arts (1906), and then, in 1929, to that of president of the Consiglio superiore delle Antichità e Belle Arti. He was also responsible for the foundation and organization of the Istituto di archeologia e sto-
His generalate was one of continual anxieties and martyrdom. As soon as Pope Clement XIII was elected, R. presented a petition against the injustices committed by Cardinals Saldanha and Atalaja during their visitation of the Jesuits’ houses in Portugal, and received from him, together with the most affectionate demonstrations of esteem, three recommendations for those stormy times: silence, patience, and prayer. R. in turn recommended these to his subjects in successive circulars. Clement XIII took every care to assist the Superior General, and a sign of his benevolence was the bull Apostolicum pascendi of 7 January 1765. But this did not calm the storm unleashed by his opponents: in 1759 the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal; in 1763 from France, in 1767 from Spain, until the brief of suppression was issued (1773). R. was imprisoned first in the Collegio Inglese, then in Castel S. Angelo, where he languished under the worst treatment for more than two years. Five days before his death, while receiving Viaticum, he repeated in the presence of the deputy castellan the protest already put in writing, declaring his own innocence and that of the entire Order (cf. E. Rosa, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 437–39). Justice was then done to him with a solemn funeral at S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini, with the approval of Pius VI.
R. was accused of excessive weakness and submissiveness, even by several of his own religious, as being capable only of praying and enduring patiently, and not of acting in defence of the Order. In reality, however, he lacked neither prudence nor active diligence; he simply had to act while concealing every step, even from those closest to him, as appears from the documents preserved. As for the fable that two Jesuits received from R. the order to poison Clement XIV, cf. B. Duhr, I Gesuiti, Javole e leggende, I, Firenze 1908, pp. 62–75. As for the celebrated phrase: Sint ut sunt aut non sint, it should be noted that it is not R.’s, but Clement XIII’s, uttered in opposition to the French government’s proposal to nationalize the French part of the Order, separating it from the others (cf. F. X. de Ravignan, op. cit. in bibl., I, p. 105).