SAVELLI, DOMENICO. - Cardinal, born at Speloncato (Aiaccio) on 15 Sept. 1792, died at Rome on 30 Aug. 1864.
He studied at the Seminary of Aiaccio, showing courage and energy from that time onward by promoting and directing the resistance of his small town against a band of insurgents (1815). He moved to Rome and obtained a degree in canon and civil law at the Sapienza. He then undertook administrative training at the Congregation of the Council and governed the delegations of Rieti, Frosinone, Perugia, and Macerata. A Cleric of the Camera in 1845, during the vacancy of the See he was appointed by the cardinals extraordinary commissioner in the Romagna. He received positions of trust from Pio IX. In 1847 he was governor of Rome and, in the Ferretti ministry (Dec. 1847–Feb. 1848), minister of Police, proving himself very
rigid toward the liberals. Still in 1848 he became vice-camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. In Apr. 1849 the same Pontiff, from Gaeta, charged him with restoring the Papal Government in the Marche, and in the following June made him extraordinary commissioner, until he was again called to the Ministry of the Interior and Police by the cardinals Altieri, Vannicelli Casoni, and Della Genga, of the so-called “red triumvirate.”
On 7 March 1853 he was created cardinal deacon, and on 4 July was appointed to the Consulta di Stato for Finance, where he displayed such prudence as to bring the disordered government budget into balance. In 1859 he left office because of financial disagreements with the Pontiff and Cardinal Antonelli.
Marlo de Camillis