SCARAMPI (SCARAMPA), PIER FRANCESCO. — Oratorian, b. in 1596 in Monferrato, d. in Rome on 14 Oct. 1656. After entering the Congregation of the Oratory in 1636, he was appointed in April 1643 by Urban VIII as papal agent to Ireland.
He landed on the island in the following July, bringing letters and indulgences for the Catholic insurgents, as well as munitions and 30,000 crowns collected in Rome by the Irish Franciscan Luke Wadding. In the internal struggle between the Anglo-Irish, who were inclined toward a compromise, and the Old Irish, who insisted on complete freedom of conscience, Scampi resolutely supported the Old Catholics, but his intervention did not prevent the triumph of the opposing faction and the conclusion of an armistice with Charles I. In May 1645 Scampi was recalled, but remained on the island until mid-1646 as an advisor to the new nuncio, G. B. Rinuccini. Returning to Rome, he became prepositus of his Congregation and died during the plague of 1656; he was buried in the church of SS. Nereo and Achilleo.