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The Sacred Congregation of Ceremonies was a
dicastery A dicastery (; ; from ) is the name of some departments in the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest C ...
of the
Roman Curia The Roman Curia () comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution of which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use ...
that was charged with the direction of all papal ceremonies as well as of the ceremonial of cardinals.


History and functions

The congregation was established by
Pope Sixtus V Pope Sixtus V (; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death, in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order, where h ...
. It also communicated instructions to the legates of the
Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
for the maintenance of due decorum in transacting the affairs of their missions. This congregation also instructed the members of the Noble Guard and the ablegate who were sent to convey to new cardinals, living in Catholic states outside of
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, the news of their promotion, together with the cardinal's hat and the red
biretta The biretta () is a square cap with three or four peaks or horns, sometimes surmounted by a tuft. Traditionally the three-peaked biretta is worn by Christian clergy, especially Catholic Church hierarchy, Roman Catholic clergy, as well as some ...
. It instructed newly promoted cardinals, too, on the
etiquette Etiquette ( /ˈɛtikɛt, -kɪt/) can be defined as a set of norms of personal behavior in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviors that accord with the conventions and ...
to be followed conformably with their new dignity. Finally, it solved the questions of precedence which arose among cardinals or among ambassadors to the Holy See. It was dissolved in 1967 in the Curial reforms by
Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
.


Prefects since 1884

* Carlo Sacconi (28 Mar 1884 – 25 Feb 1889) * Raffaele Monaco La Valletta (1 Mar 1889 – 14 Jul 1896) * Serafino Vannutelli (14 Mar 1889 – 19 Aug 1915) * Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano (1897 – 7 Dec 1913) *
Vincenzo Vannutelli Vincenzo Vannutelli (5 December 1836 – 9 July 1930) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He spent his career in the foreign service of the Holy See and was made a cardinal in 1890. At his death he was the oldest member of the Coll ...
(15 Dec 1914 – 9 Jul 1930) * Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte (14 Jul 1930 – 16 Feb 1948) * Francesco Marchetti-Selvaggiani (5 Feb 1948 – 13 Jan 1951) * Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant (10 Mar 1951 – 1967)


Bibliography

* ,
Hubert Wolf Hubert Wolf (born 26 November 1959 in Wört, Baden-Württemberg) is a German church historian and professor at the University of Münster. He was awarded a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2003. In 2006 he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of th ...
: . Rhema-Verlag, Münster 2007, (with the complete original Latin text of the diarium)


References

1588 establishments in the Papal States 1967 disestablishments in Vatican City Catholic organizations established in the 16th century Religious organizations established in the 1580s Former departments of the Roman Curia Congregations of the Roman Curia {{VaticanCity-stub