Sanfelice d'Acquavella, Guglielmo

SANFELICE D'ACQUAVELLA, GUGLIELMO. - Cardinal, b. at Aversa on 18 April 1834, d. at Naples on 3 Jan. 1897.

After completing his early studies at the College of 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 abbey itself and served there as prior and pro-vicar general, acquiring a reputation as a pious and learned man. Leo XIII called him in 1878 to succeed Cardinal Sisto Riano Sforza in the archiepiscopal see of Naples, and on 24 March 1884 he created him cardinal. In his office he gave examples of charity and pastoral gifts, among other things hastening first to Afragola, devastated by a hurricane, to Casamicciola, destroyed by the earthquake, and to the hospitals of Naples to assist cholera victims (1884). On that occasion his meeting with King Umberto I in the hospital of the Conocchia remained memorable. He celebrated the National Eucharistic Congress in Naples (1891) and protected the Catholic press. In a period of acute discord 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 Leo XIII.

Marco de Camilla