Rampolla, Del Tindaro, Mariano

RAMPOLLA, rām-pel´lā, DEL TINDARO, MARIANOO: Cardinal; b., of noble family, at Polizzi (40 m. s.e. of Palermo), Sicily, Aug. 17, 1843. He was educated at the Pontificia Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici, Rome; was attached in 1869 to the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, and shortly afterward was appointed domestic prelate to the pope. Six years later he was sent to Madrid, where he was acting papal nuncio, and in 1877 he was recalled to Rome as secretary of the Propaganda for the Oriental Rite, becoming secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in 1880. In 1882 he was consecrated titular archbishop of Heraclea and returned to Madrid as nuncio, where he was able to render important services to both the papal and the Spanish governments. He was created cardinal-priest of Santa Cecilia in 1887, and is also archpriest of the Basilica and prefect of the Congregation of the Fabric, and a member of the Congregations of the Inquisition, Consistory, Propaganda, Propaganda for the Oriental Rite, Rites, Studies, and Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. From 1887 to 1903 he was papal secretary of state, and in this office sought to further the restoration of the temporal power of the pope. He has written De cathedra Romana Beati Petri, Apostolorum principis (Rome, 1868); De authentico Romani Pontificis magisterio (1870); and Del Luogo del martirio e del sepolcro dei Maccabei (1897).