SALA, GIUSEPPE ANTONIO. - Cardinal, b. in Rome on 27 Oct. 1762, d. there on 23 June 1839.

He distinguished himself during the period of the French occupation and of the Jacobin republic of Rome (1799), through his work at the apostolic delegation left by Pius VI. In 1801 he followed Cardinal Caprara to Paris, of whom he was collaborator and secretary, particularly in the negotiations with Napoleon for the Concordat. He showed himself, however, opposed to the Concordat signed by Consalvi, judging it excessively yielding to the demands of the First Consul.

Having returned to Rome, he was secretary of the new apostolic delegation during the second French occupation; having withdrawn to Cascia, he kept Pius VI, an exile at Savona, informed of events; and he sketched a plan of reform. With the restoration, he began the publication of the Piano di riforma, in which he proposed as the principal remedy the laicization of public offices; but this was ordered to be interrupted by Cardinal Consalvi, legate at the Congress of Vienna.

From 1815 S. was secretary of the S. Congreg. of the Reform, of Ecclesiastical Affairs, of the Rites, of the Council. He took part in the negotiations for the new Concordat with France, and for the regularization of ecclesiastical affairs with Piedmont. He was elected cardinal by Gregory XVI (30 Sept. 1831) and appointed prefect of the S. Congr. of the Index, and then of the Bishops and Regulars.

Apostolic visitor of the hospitals of Rome (1824) and then president of the single Deputation for those same hospitals, with energy and munificence he procured a more prudent administration, a more efficient technical-sanitary equipment, and provided for a careful religious-nursing assistance, with the direction and expansion of the Institute of the Hospitaller Sisters of Rome, or Sisters of Mercy. As president of the Commission of public safety he knew how to confront the epidemic of cholera morbus of 1837 and to defend the Roman population from it.

Among his unpublished writings he left a precious and objective diary of the years 1798-99, and a copy of the Piano di riforma annotated and glossed by the young Gioacchino Pecci (Leo XIII), preserved in cod. Vat. lat. 1072.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: works: Diario romano degli anni 1798-99, in Misc. Soc. rom. di st. patria, 1-4, Rome 1885-88; id., Piano di riforma umiliato a Pio VII, Tolentino 1907, see also Moroni, LX, pp. 237-240; G. Cagnoni, Mem. della vita e degli scritti del card. G. A. S., Rome 1888; A. Canezza, Gli arcipedali di Roma, ibid. 1933, p. 107 ff.; M. Petrocchi, La restaurazione, il card. Consalvi e la riforma del 1816, Florence 1941, pp. 51-52.

Pietro Sannazzaro

@incollection{ec10_sala_giuseppe_antonio, author = {Sannazzaro, Piero}, title = {Sala, giuseppe antonio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1643--1644}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sala-giuseppe-antonio} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Sala, Giuseppe Antonio

About this entry