Saverio Ritter (24 January 1884 – 21 April 1951) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

. He was born in Chiavenna, in the Province of Sondrio, Italy, on 24 January 1884 and was ordained priest on 9 September 1906. He was posted to Prague as secretary of the nunciature in 1927 along with

Pietro Ciriaci Pietro Ciriaci (2 December 1885 – 30 December 1966) was an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Council in the Roman Curia from 1954 until his death, and was elevated to the card ...

to resolve the ongoing crisis in diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and the Holy See occasioned by local celebrations of

Jan Hus Jan Hus (; ; 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the insp ...

, viewed as a heretic by the Church and a national hero to many Czechs. The Nuncio to Czechoslovakia,

Francesco Marmaggi Francesco Marmaggi (31 August 1876 – 3 November 1949) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Prefect of the Congregation of the Council and, earlier, as Nuncio in Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland, as well as being a specia ...

, had withdrawn to Rome in protest. On 5 August 1935 he was named a titular archbishop and appointed

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international ...

to Czechoslovakia. He was consecrated a bishop by cardinal

Eugenio Pacelli Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

on 11 August 1935. His service was interrupted by World War II, when the German Nazi regime established a client state, the Slovak Republic, which was recognized by several countries, including the Holy See, which maintained a diplomatic office headed by a chargé d’affaires, Giuseppe Burzio. On 11 May 1946 Ritter was named Internuncio to Czechoslovakia, but illness allowed him to perform his duties only intermittently. Nevertheless, because of his support for the Czechoslovakian bishops against the new regime, the government declared him undesirable in March 1949 and he left Prague in July. He was posted to the Secretariat of State in Rome in 1948. He died in Rome on 21 April 1951.

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External links

Saverio Ritter
on www.catholic-hierarchy.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Saverio 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops 1951 deaths 1884 births Apostolic Nuncios to Czechoslovakia People from Chiavenna