SIMEONI, GIOVANNI. - Cardinal, b. at Paliano on 12 July 1816, d. at Rome on 14 Jan. 1892.
The son of an employee of the Colonna princes, he completed his studies under the care of that family and, while still very young, taught philosophy and theology at the College of Propaganda. Auditor of the nunciature in Madrid, domestic prelate in 1857 and then titular archbishop of Chalcedon and secretary of the S. Congr. of Propaganda, in 1858 he took part in the Panebianco mission to Transylvania for the question of mixed marriages. In 1875 he was sent as nuncio to Spain, to re-establish there the diplomatic relations interrupted by the revolution of 1868. Pius IX created him cardinal, reserving him in pectore on 15 March, and published him on 18 Sept. 1875.
He remained in Spain as pro-nuncio until Nov. 1876, when, upon the death of Antonelli, he was called to succeed him as Secretary of State. It therefore fell to S. to circulate to the powers the protest against the succession of Umberto I to Victor Emmanuel II to the detriment of the temporal rights of the Holy See. After the death of Pius IX, who wished him to be his executor, Leo XIII confirmed him in the prefecture of the Apostolic Palaces and in the administration of the goods of the Holy See. Having left the secretariat of State, he held the prefecture of Propaganda until his death. At his death he bequeathed to the Supreme Pontiff the notable art collection he had assembled.
Bibliography4 works
Renzo U. Montini