Vincenzo Macchi (30 August 1770 – 30 September 1860) was an Italian Cardinal.

Career

Born on 30 August 1770 in Capodimonte in the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, he studied in

Montefiascone Montefiascone is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, central Italy. It stands on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, about north of Rome. History The name of the city derives from that of the Falisci (''Mons Fa ...

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, where he was active in the years 1801-1816, the years in which

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

was organizing and leading the Peninsular Campaign. In 1818 he was appointed Archbishop of Nisibi in partibus and from late 1818 to October 1819 was in Lucerne as Nuncio to the

Swiss Confederation ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. In the years 1819-1826 he was Nuncio in Paris, and was made Cardinal by Pope

Leo XII Leo or Léo may refer to: Acronyms * Law enforcement officer * Law enforcement organisation * ''Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky * Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Arts an ...

in the consistory 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 Giuseppe (Andrea) Albani (13 September 1750 – 3 December 1834) was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal. He played an important role in the elections of Leo XII, Pius VIII and Gregory XVI. Biography Albani was born in Rome into a noble fam ...

. He never received more than twelve votes. Subsequently, Macchi occupied various

suburbicarian see The seven suburbicarian dioceses are Roman Catholic dioceses located in the vicinity of Rome, whose (titular) bishops are the (now six) ordinary members of the highest-ranking order of cardinals, the cardinal bishops (to which the cardinal-patriarch ...

s: as Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina in 1840, as Cardinal

Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina A bishop is an ordained clergy member 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 of dioceses. The role or offic ...

in 1844, and, as

Dean of the College of Cardinals The dean of the College of Cardinals ( la, Decanus Collegii Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalium) presides over the College of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, serving as ''primus inter pares'' (first among equals). The position was establi ...

, was also Cardinal

Bishop of Ostia The Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Ostia is an ecclesiastical territory located within the Metropolitan City of Rome in Italy. It is one of the seven suburbicarian dioceses. The incumbent Bishop is cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. Since ...

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 In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

of Ss. John and Paul, on the Coelian Hill, at the time of his death he was the last surviving cardinal elevated by

Pope Leo XII Pope Leo XII ( it, Leone XII; born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga (; 2 August 1760 – 10 February 1829), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 28 September 1823 to his death ...

References

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.

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macchi, Vincenzo 1770 births 1860 deaths Apostolic Nuncios to Switzerland Apostolic Nuncios to France 19th-century Italian cardinals Cardinal-bishops of Ostia Cardinal-bishops of Palestrina Cardinal-bishops of Porto Deans of the College of Cardinals Members of the Sacred Congregation of the Council Members of the Holy Office