VANNICELLI CASONI, LUIGI. - Cardinal, b. at Amelia on 16 April 1801, d. at Rome on 21 April 1877.
A Vatican canon in 1829, he became in 1835 vice-commissar of the four Legations with residence in Bologna and, in 1838, vice-chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, governor of Rome, president of the government tribunal. Among the provisions issued by him in these offices, notable is the one on passports and on surveillance at the gates of Rome.
A cardinal in 1842, and legate in Bologna, he gave proof of prudence and wisdom, meeting with the favor of the populations. He had the Farnese Hall and the church of S. Michele in Bosco restored and the building of the Academy of Fine Arts embellished. During his presidency (from 1845) of the Congregation of the Census, he published (1850) the equivalents of the various agrarian measures of the Papal State, in the metric system, in 9 vols. On 1 July 1849 he was called to be part, together with cardinals Altieri and Della Genga Sermattei, of the Commission of three cardinals to prepare the return of Pius IX to Rome.
Pius IX, in 1850, elected him archbishop of Ferrara, where he carried out a conspicuous pastoral activity. Besides the pastoral visitation, he favored the preaching of missions in the towns of the diocese, revived the University emulating the zeal of card. Riminaldi, and devoted continuous care to the communal and private schools. A forerunner of modern forms of apostolate, he was a courageous herald of the Catholic press, which he supported with energy and vigor. In the cholera epidemic of 1855 and in the flooding of the Po of 1872, he carried out an uninterrupted work of assistance, generously providing for the orphans, the widows and the families of those struck, going personally into the poor hovels, into the main hospital and into the lazaretto, placing his house at Sabbioncello at the disposal of the homeless.
In 1851 he was in Vienna as the bearer of a letter of Pius IX to Francis Joseph and by the same Pontiff he was, in 1870, appointed pro-datary while continuing to govern the archdiocese of Ferrara.