Vincenzo Macchi
Encyclopedia
Career
Born on 31 August 1770 in CapodimonteCapodimonte
Capodimonte is a comune in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Lazio, located about 90 km northwest of Rome and about 20 km northwest of Viterbo. It is on the southwestern shore of Lake Bolsena...
in the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
, he studied in Montefiascone
Montefiascone
Montefiascone is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo, Italy, located on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, 95 km north of GRA .-History:...
and in Rome and was ordained a priest in 1794. In 1801 he gained his doctorate in utroque iure and was posted to the papal Nunciature in Lisbon
Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal
The Apostolic Nunciature to the Republic of Portugal is an ecclesiastical office of the Catholic Church in Portugal. It is a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative is called the Apostolic Nuncio with the rank of an ambassador...
, where he was active in the years 1801-1816. In 1818 he was appointed Archbishop of Nisibi in partibus and from late 1818 to October 1819 was in Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
as Nuncio to the Swiss Confederation. In the years 1819-1826 he was Nuncio in Paris
Apostolic Nuncio to France
The Apostolic Nunciature to the French Republic is an ecclesiastical office of the Catholic Church in France. It is a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative is called the Apostolic Nuncio with the rank of an ambassador....
, and was made Cardinal by Pope Leo XII in the concistory of 2 October 1826. In the years 1828-1830 he was Legate in Ravenna and Forlì and in 1836-1841 Legate in Bologna. Although considered a candidate in the Papal conclave of 1830-1, his backing was insufficient, despite the support of Giuseppe Albani.
Subsequently Macchi occupied various suburbicarian sees: as Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina in 1840, as Cardinal Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina in 1844, and, as Dean of the College of Cardinals
Dean of the College of Cardinals
The Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals is the president of the College of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, and as such always holds the rank of Cardinal Bishop. The Dean is not necessarily the longest-serving member of the whole College...
, was also Cardinal Bishop of Ostia
Bishop of Ostia
The Bishop of Ostia is the head of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Ostia, one of the seven suburbicarian sees of Rome. The position is now attached to the post of Dean of the College of Cardinals, as it has been since 1150, with the actual governance of the diocese entrusted to the Vicar General of...
from 1847. He likewise occupied in the last three decades of his life various posts in the Roman Curia.
He died in Rome on 30 September 1860, aged 90. His tomb is in the Roman Basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
of anti Giovanni e Paolo (Rome) | Ss. John and Paul, on the Coelian Hill.
Sources
- Philippe Boutry, Souverain et Pontife: recherches prosopographiques sur la curie romaine à l'âge de la restauration, 1814-1846, Ecole française de Rome, Rome, 2002, pp. 409-410.
- Giuseppe De Marchi, Le nunziature apostoliche dal 1800 al 1956, Edizioni di Storia e letteratura, Roma, 1957, pp. 125-126, 211 and 244;
- Urban Fink, Die Luzerner Nuntiatur 1586-1873: Zur Behördengeschichte und Quellenkunde der päpstlichen Diplomatie in der Schweiz, Rex Verlag, Luzern & Stuttgart 1997 (Collectanea Archivi Vaticani 40; Luzerner Historische Veröffentlichungen 32), pp. 186 and 196-197.
- C. Weber, Kardinäle und Prälaten in den letzten Jahrzehnten des Kirchenstaates, 1978, pp. 477-478.