Carlo Respighi (November 18, 1873 – June 6, 1947), was an Italian priest, Protonotary Apostolic and Papal Master of Ceremonies from 1918 until his death in 1947.

Biography

Carlo Respighi was born in Rome at the Torre del Campidoglio, the son of renowned astronomer

Lorenzo Respighi Lorenzo Respighi (7 October 1824 – 10 December 1889) was an Italian mathematician and natural philosopher. He was a pioneer in solar spectroscopy. Biography Lorenzo Respighi was born at Cortemaggiore, Piacenza, to Luigi Respighi and Giusepp ...

and nephew of Cardinal

Pietro Respighi Pietro Respighi S.T.D. JUD (22 September 1843 – 22 March 1913) was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and vicar general of Rome. He was made a cardinal in 1899. Biography H ...

, former Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome and Archpriest of Sthe Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. Respighi's priestly vocation thus developed in contact with the memory of the first Christian martyrs. As a child he often accompanied

Giovanni Battista de Rossi Giovanni Battista (Carlo) de Rossi (23 February 1822 – 20 September 1894) was an Italian archaeologist, famous even outside his field for rediscovering early Christian catacombs. Life and works Born in Rome, he was the son of Commendatore C ...

, the master of Christian archaeology, a close friend of the Respighi family and who lived at the foot of the Capitoline ramp, on his visits to the catacombs. He was a student at the

Almo Collegio Capranica The Almo Collegio Capranica is the oldest Roman college, founded in 1457 by Cardinal Domenico Capranica (1400–1458) in his own palace for thirty young clerics, who received an education suitable to prepare them for the priesthood. History ...

from 1890 to 1896 and had as fellow students the future cardinals

Benedetto Aloisi Masella Benedetto Aloisi Masella (29 June 1879 – 30 September 1970) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as prefect of the Discipline of the Sacraments from 1954 to 1968, and as chamberlain of the Roman Church (or camerl ...

Luigi Maglione Luigi Maglione (; 2March 187722August 1944) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1908 and served as a papal nuncio from 1920 to 1935. After a few years working in the Roman Curia, h ...

Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani (1 October 1871 – 13 January 1951) was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, Vicar General of His Holiness, Secretary of the Holy Office, ...

, Clemente Micara, as well as Eugenio Pacelli, later

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

. He attended the Pontifical Gregorian University and was ordained a priest in 1895. An expert in Gregorian music, he already stood out in 1899 for his studies on Palestrina's Graduale Romanum. In 1902 he founded, together with the Jesuit Angelo De Santi, the magazine Rassegna Gregoriana, which he directed until 1914. As early as 1899 he was a member, as a supernumerary, of the College of Pontifical Masters of Ceremonies. He became undersecretary of the Sacred Ceremonial Congregation, a position he held until 1918, and secretary of the Commission of Music and Sacred Chant of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. He participated the 1914 Papal Conclave as the Master of Ceremonies, where

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...

was elected. On 29 May 1917 he was appointed Protonotary Apostolic with the task of the future succession of Francesco Riggi, prefect of papal ceremonies since 10 September 1895, whom he succeeded the following year. More than thirty years, between 1918 and 1947, as Master of the Papal Ceremonies, he coordinated and directed numerous rites, then extraordinarily complex, relating to three Supreme Pontiffs such as Benedict XV,

Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

, and

Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

. On the

papal coronation A papal coronation was the formal ceremony of the placing of the papal tiara on a newly elected pope. The first recorded papal coronation was of Pope Nicholas I in 858. The most recent was the 1963 coronation of Paul VI, who soon afterwards aba ...

of Pope Pius XII, Mons. Respighi was caught into camera that he irritated with unknown reasons during the part of papal blessing. Aside being a Papal Master of Ceremonies, Respighi is a Rector of the Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati in the Lateran, on 22 December 1935 he was appointed canon of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. On Friday, June 6, 1947, at around 9:35 a.m. Carlo Respighi died unexpectedly due to the sudden heart attack in his private residence inside the Papal Apartments. He was 73. The day before his death, he had assisted Pius XII at the Holy Mass celebrated for the first communion of the Pope's great-grandnephew and the children of members of the diplomatic corps.

Gallery

Image: Mons-carlo-respighi.jpg, Monsignor Carlo Respighi when he was young.

Biography

Gallery

References

See also