ZAGURI, MARCO. — Bishop. Born in Venice in 1738, died in Vicenza on 12 Sept. 1810.
After completing his studies in Bologna and Padua, he was ordained a priest and devoted himself to philosophical and sociological research, publishing in 1776 a successful volume (of which various editions were made), entitled *Piano per dar regolato sistema al moderno spirito filosofico* [Plan to Establish a Regulated System for the Modern Philosophical Spirit]. In it, with refined irony, he introduces an innovator who grotesquely extols Enlightenment and rationalist theories, in such a way as to highlight their contradictions and errors. The work earned him, from Pius VI in 1778, the appointment as Bishop of Ceneda (today Vittorio Veneto), from which he was later promoted to the see of Vicenza. As bishop during the difficult years of the French invasion, he was a staunch defender of the rights of the Church and worked tirelessly to save supporters of the ancien régime from Jacobin persecutions.
With truly evangelical frankness, Z. set forth, in a series of learned and courageous sermons (later collected and printed), the contradictions between Catholic teaching and revolutionary postulates, warning his clergy and the faithful against embracing ideologies contrary to religion and morality. Particularly noteworthy are the two *Ai parroci... sopra il vero carattere della subordinazione e sudditanza* [To the Parish Priests... on the True Nature of Subordination and Submission] (1798).
Renzo U. Montini