SANFELICE D'ACQUAVELLA, GUGLIELMO. - Cardinal, b. at Aversa on 18 April 1834, d. at Napoli on 3 January 1897.
After completing his initial studies at the Collegio di Maddaloni, he continued them at the abbey of Cava dei Tirreni, where he became a monk and then a priest. He taught Greek and Latin literature at the same abbey and was its prior and deputy vicar general, acquiring a reputation as a pious and learned man. In 1878 Leone XIII called him to succeed Cardinal Sisto Riano Sforza in the archiepiscopal see of Napoli, and on 24 March 1884 created him cardinal. In his office he gave examples of charity and pastoral gifts, among other things being the first to hasten to Afragola, devastated by a hurricane, to Casamicciola, destroyed by the earthquake, and to the hospitals of Napoli to assist cholera patients (1884). On this occasion his meeting with King Umberto I in the hospital of the Conocchia remained memorable. He celebrated the National Eucharistic Congress in Napoli (1891) and protected the Catholic press. In a period of acute conflict between Church and State, he worked for conciliation, always remaining firm in the defense of the rights of God and of souls and obedient to the directives of Leone XIII.