Paolo Angelo Ballerini (14 September 1814 – 27 March 1897) was an Italian prelate who was named by Pope Pius IX as the Archbishop of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He also served as the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria. His cause of canonization has begun and he is now a Servant of God.

Life

Ballerini was born in

in 1814, at the time, part of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

. In 1837 he was ordained as a priest for his native archdiocese and then in December 1857 he was named

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop' ...

of the archdiocese. In the early days of 1858, Archbishop Romilli suffered a stroke so Ballerini's duties in the management of the archdiocese were increased due to the critical condition of archbishop Romilli.

Archbishop of Milan

In May 1859 Romilli died so following the

Concordat of 1855 The Concordat of 1855 was a Concordat or agreement between the Holy See and the Austrian Empire as regards the Catholic Church in Austria. The Austrian Bishops' Conference was established in 1849 and agreed to a Concordat which would grant them gr ...

the

Austrian emperor The Emperor of Austria (german: Kaiser von Österreich) was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A hereditary imperial title and office proclaimed in 1804 by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a member of the Hou ...

suggested Ballerini, a staunch conservative, as Archbishop of Milan and Pope Pius IX accepted soon. The Italian government, that had taken possession of Milan and Lombardy after the

Second Italian War of Independence The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Franco-Austrian War, the Austro-Sardinian War or Italian War of 1859 ( it, Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana; french: Campagne d'Italie), was fought by the Second French Empire and t ...

, refused to recognize Ballerini as archbishop because he opposed the cause of Italian reunification. Ballerini was unable to take possession of his see as archbishop but Auxiliary bishop Carlo Caccia Dominioni governed the archdiocese. In October 1866 bishop Caccia di Dominioni died and the chapter of the Milan cathedral named Filippo Carcano as vicar of the archbishop, Ballerini didn't agree with this decision so in order to avoid other problems pope Pius IX named

Luigi Nazari di Calabiana Luigi Nazari di Calabiana (1808 – 1893) was an Italian churchman and politician: a senator of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Archbishop of Milan. Biography He was born on 27 July 1808 in Savigliano to Filippo, count of Calabiana, and the nob ...

as Archbishop of Milan and Ballerini was named as

Latin Patriarch of Alexandria Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peo ...

. The former archbishop of Milan participated in the First Vatican Council, where he supported the dogma of

papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks '' ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the apos ...

. Ballerini spent his later life in

Seregno Seregno (; lmo, label= Brianzoeu, Seregn ) is a town and ''comune'' of the new Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region of Lombardy. Seregno received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on 26 January 1979. It is se ...

, where he died in 1897.

Cause of beatification

The Archdiocese of Milan opened his cause of canonization in 2015 and he is now known as a Servant of God.

Works

* ''Sancti Ambrosii Mediolanensis episcopi..., Opera omnia'', curante P.A. Ballerini, I-VI, Mediolani, e Typographia Sancti Josephi, 1875-1883.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballerini, Paolo Angelo 1814 births 1897 deaths Archbishops of Milan Italian Servants of God Participants in the First Vatican Council 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops