SATOLLI, FRANCESCO. - Cardinal, b. at Marsciano, archdiocese of Perugia, on 21 July 1839, d. at Rome on 8 Jan. 1910. He studied at the Seminary of Perugia and, after obtaining a degree in philosophy at the Sapienza, was appointed prior-parish priest of Marsciano.
Leo XIII in 1886 called him to Rome as professor of dogmatic theology at the Roman Seminary and at the Urban College of Propaganda Fide, and he was one of the Pontiff's collaborators in the restoration of Thomism in Catholic schools. He also gave lectures on public ecclesiastical law at the Pontifical Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics, of which he became president in 1886. Elected in 1888 titular archbishop of Lepanto, he was sent in 1892 to the inauguration of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, on the occasion of the Columbian centenary. Appointed in the same year first apostolic delegate in the United States of America, he visited numerous dioceses, gave appreciated lectures at the Catholic University of Washington, gave impetus to the Catholic movement and attended to the resolution of important problems, displaying great balance and prudence.
Created cardinal by Leo XIII on 29 Nov. 1895, in 1896 he became archpriest of the Lateran Basilica and in 1897 prefect of the Congregation of Studies. He took a notable part in the Conclave of 1903 and was among the principal supporters of the election to the pontificate of Card. Giuseppe Sarto.
Among his publications are to be remembered: Della memoria umana (Rome 1883); Enchiridion Philosophiae (ibid. 1884); In Summam theologicum Divi Thomae Aquinatis praelectiones (5 vols., ibid. 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 it. His treatises, today forgotten because of their obscurity and lack of documentation, served for two decades to spread Thomism in various ecclesiastical circles.
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Mario de Camillis