Anunciado Serafini (16 November 1898 – 18 February 1963) was the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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 ...

of what is now the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mercedes-Luján The Archdiocese of Mercedes-Luján (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in north-central Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was immediately subject to the Holy See, coming into 2019. Erected as th ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Ordained to the priesthood on 20 December 1924, Serafini was named Auxiliary Bishop of La Plata and Titular Bishop of Arycanda in 1935, and then Bishop of Mercedes in 1939. On 8 April 1962, Bishop Serafini consecrated Antonio Quarracino to the episcopacy. As Cardinal Quarracino later conducted the episcopal consecration of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

, Bishop Serafini is part of that pope's

episcopal lineage The historic or historical episcopate comprises all episcopates, that is, it is the collective body of all the bishops of a group who are in valid apostolic succession. This succession is transmitted from each bishop to their successors by the r ...

References

1898 births 1963 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Argentina Roman Catholic bishops of La Plata in Argentina Roman Catholic bishops of Mercedes-Luján Argentine Roman Catholic archbishops {{Argentina-RC-bishop-stub