Giacomo Margotti

Giacomo Margotti (11 May 1823 – 6 May 1887) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and journalist.

Biography Margotti was a native of San Remo, where his father was president of the Chamber of Commerce, and there he studied the classics and philosophy, after which he entered the Augustinian seminary of Ventimiglia; in 1845, he obtained a doctorate at the University of Genoa and was received into the Royal Academy of Superga, where he remained until 1849.

He was ordained in March 1846 and assigned to the parish of St. Siro in his hometown of San Remo. In July 1848, in company with Luigi Moreno, Bishop of Ivrea, Guglielmo Audisio, and the Marquis Birago, he established the daily paper L'Armonia, which soon had a number of distinguished contributors; among them, Rosmini and the Marquis Gustavo Benso di Cavour, brother of Camillo Cavour.

Although inspired by principles essentially conservative, L'Armonia was originally somewhat moderate due to the presence of representatives of liberal Catholicism. Throughout 1848 the paper followed the events of the war against Austria while maintaining a patriotic attitude in support of the monarchy and calling priests to their duties as citizens in defense of the country.

The paper was subject to seizure, fines, coerced closure, and other harassment. According to The Tablet, so frequently was the paper prosecuted at that time, that an old Piedmontese soldier was retained on its staff to sign as its responsible editor. It is said that in this capacity the brave fellow passed most of his time in prison. Margotti was at this time threatened by the secret societies, and to avoid assassins he was forced to say Mass at an early hour in some quiet convent chapel and from there make his way furtively to the office of his paper.

In 1859, Cavour suppressed "L'Armonia". This publication was replaced by Il Piemonte; but when the period of agitation passed, L'Armonia reappeared; its name was changed on 25 December 1863, at the wish of Pope Pius IX, and it was called L'Unità Cattolica ("Catholic Unity"). In this he was in accordance with the views of Pius IX, who, in 1868, said to Margotti that Catholics should not go to the ballot-box: "Non si vada alle urne".

When Rome fell into the hands of the Italian Government, the scene of controversy shifted there and the influence of Margotti's journal declined. Margotti was foreign to all sense of personal aggrandizement. Pius IX once said, "Margotti never asked me for anything: he was right, for any dignity that I could have conferred upon him would have been inferior to his merits". Giacomo Margotti died in Turin on 6 May 1887, leaving nearly 100,000 lire for charitable purposes.

Besides the articles in "L'Unità", Margotti wrote: (1851) (1855) (1857) (1863, 6 volumes) (1863).