TAROZZI, VINCENZO. — Humanist and ascetical writer, born at Castelfranco Bolognese on 11 June 1849, died in Rome on 17 December 1918.
He entered the Seminary of Bologna on 17 October 1861, where he obtained a degree in theology and was ordained a priest in 1871; after qualifying at Padua (1876) to teach literature, he was professor of various subjects and vice-rector at the Seminary of Bologna; in 1882, rector of the Minor Seminary of the Holy Apostles; in 1885, professor in Rome at the Institute of Higher Literature at the Apollinare and, for three years, also spiritual director at the Pontifical Pio Seminary; in 1892, secretary to Leo XIII for Latin Letters. He thus took part in the Providentissimus Deus (v.), Christi Domini on the restoration of the Coptic hierarchy, Amantissimae voluntatis on the return of the English to the Catholic Church, Apostolicae curae on Anglican Ordinations, Divinum illud (v.), and those on the Marian Rosary and on the Eucharist, Mirae caritatis. From 1903 he devoted himself to the spiritual formation of the young clergy at the Collegio Apostolico Leoniano and, after its closure (1913), at the Vatican Minor Seminary.
He was one of the foremost Latinists of the second half of the nineteenth century; in Italian as well, he was an exceptionally pure writer. He wrote: Commentaries on the Archbishops of the Church of Bologna, from 1582 to 1877, as a continuation of the work of Carlo Signorio (Bologna 1883); and many ascetical pamphlets (republished by Cardinal E. Ruffini, 1939), including: Practices for inner peace, « Psuillite sapienter », on the duty of the Divine Office; Practical advice for fruitful preaching; Documents of the spiritual life, for clerics, especially according to the examples of St Giov. Berchmans (Italian version, Modena 1911; 2nd ed., Turin 1930).
In the field of poetry he composed a collection in honor of Leo XIII (with a version by L. Carloni), presented by the clergy of Forlì to the Pontiff on the occasion of his episcopal jubilee (Forlì 1893). His extensive correspondence has not yet been collected. All his ascetical teaching is delicate and simple, clear and persuasive, the fruit of personal experience and inspired by the doctrine of the Church.