TAROZZI, VINCENZO. - Humanist and ascetical writer, b. at Castelfranco Bolognese on 11 June 1849, d. in Rome on 17 Dec. 1918.
Having entered the Seminary of Bologna on 17 Oct. 1861, he obtained there his degree in theology and was ordained a priest there in 1871; having qualified at Padua (1876) for the teaching of literature, he was professor of various disciplines and vice-rector in the Seminary of Bologna; in 1882 rector of the minor Seminary of the SS. Apostoli; in 1885 professor in Rome at the Institute of Higher Literature at the Apollinare and for three years also spiritual director at the Pont. Seminary Pio; in 1892 secretary of Leo XIII for Latin Letters. He thus had a part in the drafting of the encyclicals Providentissimus Deus (v.), Christi Domini for 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.), those on the Marian Rosary and that on the Eucharist, Mirae caritatis. From 1903 he devoted himself to the spiritual formation of the young clergy in the Collegio Apostolico Leoniano and, after this was closed (1913), in the minor Vatican Seminary.
He was one of the greatest Latinists of the second half of the nineteenth century; even in Italian he is a most pure writer. He wrote: De Archiepiscopis Ecclesiae Bononiensis Commentarii, from 1582 to 1877, in continuation of the work of Carlo Signorio (Bologna 1883); and many ascetical opuscules (republished by Card. E. Ruffini, 1939) among which: Industrie per le pace interiore, « Psuillite sapienter », on the duty of the divine Office; Auvisi pratici per la fruttuose predicazione; Documenta vitae spiritualis, for clerics, above all according to the examples of St. John Berchmans (It. trans. Modena 1911; 2nd ed. Turin 1930).
In the field of poetry he composed a collection in honor of Leo XIII (with trans. by L. Carloni) offered by the clergy of Forlì to the Pontiff on his episcopal jubilee (Forlì 1893). His extensive correspondence has not yet been gathered together. All his ascetical teaching is delicate and simple, clear and persuasive, the fruit of personal experience and inspired by the doctrine of the Church.
Bibliography4 works
Igino Cecchetti