SATOLLI, FRANCESCO. — Cardinal, born at Marsciano, in the Archdiocese of Perugia, on 21 July 1839, died at Rome on 8 January 1910. He studied at the Seminary of Perugia and, having obtained a degree in philosophy at the Sapienza, was appointed parish prior of Marsciano.
In 1886 Leo XIII called him to Rome as professor of dogmatic theology at the Roman Seminary and at the Collegio Urbano of Propaganda Fide, and he was one of the Pontiff’s collaborators in the restoration of Thomism in Catholic schools. He also lectured in ecclesiastical public law at the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, of which he became president in 1886. Elected titular archbishop of Lepanto in 1888, he was sent in 1892 to the inauguration of the World’s Fair in Chicago, on the occasion of the Columbian centenary. Appointed in the same year the first apostolic delegate to the United States of America, he visited numerous dioceses, gave highly esteemed lectures at the Catholic University of Washington, promoted the Catholic movement, and devoted himself to resolving important problems, demonstrating great balance and prudence.
Created cardinal by Leo XIII on 29 November 1895, in 1896 he became archpriest of the Basilica Leteranense and in 1897 prefect of the Congregation of Studies. He played a significant role in the Conclave of 1903 and was among the principal supporters of the election of Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto to the papacy.
Among his publications, the following should be remembered: Della memoria umana (Rome 1883); Enchiridion Philosophiae (there 1884); In Summam theologicum Divi Thomae Aquinatis praelectiones (5 vols., there from 1884–97); De Concordatis (Rome 1888); Loyalty to Church and State (Baltimore 1895); De habitibus doctrina sancti Thomae Aquinatis (Rome 1897). As a theologian, he had the merit of drawing the thought of St. Thomas from its sources, at times presenting personal interpretations of II. His treatises, now forgotten because of their obscurity and lack of documentation, served for two decades to spread Thomism in various ecclesiastical circles.