Ignazio Camillo Guglielmo Maria Pietro Persico (30 January 1823 – 7 December 1895) was an Italian

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

.Florida International University, Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church website, ''Biographical Dictionary of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Consistory of January 16, 1893 (XVIII)''
/ref> He served multiple assignments, including as vicar apostolic,

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

, apostolic delegate to Ireland, and

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of the Roman Colleges. He briefly served as the bishop of the

Diocese of Savannah The Diocese of Savannah () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia in the United States.

in Georgia in the United States from 1870 to 1873.

Early life

Ignazio Persico was born on 30 January 1823 in Naples in the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

. Persico entered the Capuchin Franciscan Order on 25 April 1839.

Priesthood

He was ordained into the priesthood in Naples for the Franciscan Order on 24 January 1846 by Bishop Gennaro Pasca. In November 1846, Persico was sent to

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Vicar Apostolic Anastasius Hartmann made him his socius and confidant. In 1850, Persico accompanied Hartmann to

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

in what was then the Bombay Presidency of India. Persico was then transferred to the Apostolic Vicariate of Bombay. Persico assisted Hartmann in founding a seminary in Bombay and establishing the ''Bombay Catholic Examiner''. In 1853, the Vatican was facing a schism among Portuguese and Indian priests in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, a small Indian colony of the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...

. Hartmann sent Persico to Rome to discuss the problem with

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

and then to London to do the same with the British Government.Hess, Lawrence. "Ignatius Persico." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 14 February 2020

Vicar Apostolic of Bombay and Agra

Persico was appointed on 8 March 1854 as coadjutor vicar apostolic for the Apostolic Vicariate of Bombay and Titular Bishop of Gratianopolis by Pius IX. Persico was consecrated by Bishop Hartmann on 4 June 1854. In 1855, Persico was appointed visitor of the Apostolic Vicariate of Agra in Agra, British India. He was later named vicar apostolic of that district. During the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

against British occupation forces, Persico was in danger several times, causing his health to deteriorate. He wrote an eyewitness account of the events in Agra that was published in 1858. Persico returned in 1860 to Italy to recover his health.

Later positions

In 1866, the Vatican sent Persico to the United States to perform mission work. While there, he participated in the Council of Baltimore. On 11 March 1870, Persico was appointed by Pius IX as bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

. However, Pius IX accepted his resignationl from this position due to continuing health problems on August 25, 1872. In 1874, Pius IX named Persico as titular bishop of Bolina and sent him to serve in Canada as an apostolic delegate. In 1877, he was sent back to India to settle a church schism.

Bishop of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo

On 15 July 1878, Persico was appointed by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo in Italy. On 26 March 1879, he automatically became bishop of that diocese after the death of Bishop Paolo do Niquesa. On 5 March 1887, Persico resigned his post.

Roman Curia

On 14 March 1887, Leo XIII promoted Persico to the Roman Curia and appointed him as titular archbishop of Tamiatha. The pope then sent Persico to serve as apostolic delegate to Ireland, then a part of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

; he was to evaluate the ties between the Irish clergy and the

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

movement. Persico quickly realized that he needed to consider the history of Ireland in addition to current politics and delayed his report to analyze it. At that time, the

Irish National League The Irish National League (INL) was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded on 17 October 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell as the successor to the Irish National Land League after this was suppressed. Whereas the Land League ...

was promoting the

Plan of Campaign The Plan of Campaign was a strategy, stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee landlord, absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to ...

, a political strategy to force English

absentee landlord In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 b ...

s to lower the rents charged to financially strapped Irish tenant farmers. On 23 April 1888, before Persico could complete his report, the

Congregation of the Holy Office The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is a department of the Roman Curia in charge of the religious discipline of the Catholic Church. The Dicastery is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of t ...

declared its opposition to the Plan of Campaign and condemned the use of boycotting by Irish activists. In June 1888, Leo XIII was issued the

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

"''Saepe Nos''", reinforcing and defending this condemnation. According to author Edward Purcell, this ruling was a surprise and disappointment for Persico:

"The promulgation of the Papal Rescript, condemning boycotting and the Plan of Campaign as grave offences against the moral law, took Mgr. Persico as much by surprise as it did Cardinal Manning; for both he and the Papal Delegate confidently expected that, in accordance with their joint suggestions, the condemnation of the immoral methods of the League would have been pronounced not directly by the Holy See, but by the Irish Episcopate."

His mission in Ireland terminated, Persico returned to Rome much disappointed. He later commented,

"I had no idea that anything had been done about Irish affairs, much less thought that some questions had been referred to the Holy Office, and the first knowledge I had of the decree was on the morning of the 28th April, when I received the bare circular sent me by Propaganda. I must add that had I known of such a thing I would have felt it my duty to make proper representations to the Holy See".

On 16 January 1893, Persico was created cardinal priest of the title of St. Peter in Chains.StudyLight website, ''Ignatius Persico''
/ref>

Death and legacy

Persico died in Rome on 7 December 1895 and was buried at the Church of Propaganda Fide, Campo Verano cemetery.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Savanna
{{DEFAULTSORT:Persico, Ignatius 1823 births 1896 deaths Capuchin bishops Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Capuchin missionaries in India Italian expatriates in India Italian expatriates in the United States Roman Catholic Diocese of Kangding Roman Catholic bishops of Savannah, Georgia Bishops appointed by Pope Pius IX Bishops appointed by Pope Leo XIII 19th-century Italian cardinals Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII Capuchin cardinals Officials of the Roman Curia Diplomats for the Holy See Burials at Campo Verano