SERAFINI, DOMENICO. - Cardinal, b. in Rome on 3 Aug. 1852, d. there on 5 March 1918. At the age of nineteen he entered the Benedictine monastery of S. Scolastica at Subiaco and in 1877 became a priest.
He was later master of novices and held important assignments in Malta, Genoa and Parma. Prior of the monastery of S. Scolastica in 1891, he became in 1892 abbot procurator general and consultor of the Congregations of the Holy Office, of Propaganda Fide and of Bishops and Regulars. Elected abbot general in 1896, he brought to completion long and difficult proceedings for the vindication of the rights of the abbatial cathedral church of Subiaco and caused monastic discipline to flourish again. Leo XIII, in 1900, wanted him as archbishop of Spoleto. Sent by Bl. Pius X as apostolic delegate to Mexico in 1904, he was able to take account of the spiritual interests of the country, earning the esteem of the episcopate and of the faithful, and the regard of the civil authorities and of foreign representatives. The same Pontiff in 1912 named him titular archbishop of Seleucia of Isauria and assessor of the Congregation of the Holy Office; then on 25 May 1914 he created him cardinal.
In the Conclave that followed the death of Pius X his name was insistently put forward among the cardinals as successor. Benedict XV from 1914 onward wanted him as pro-prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide and, on the death of Card. Gotti (1916), as prefect.
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