Ignatius Persico

Ignazio Camillo Guglielmo Maria Pietro Persico (30 January 1823 – 7 December 1895) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

He served multiple assignments, including as vicar apostolic, bishop, apostolic delegate to Ireland, and vicar of the Roman Colleges. He briefly served as the bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia in the United States from 1870 to 1873.

Early life Ignazio Persico was born on 30 January 1823 in Naples, in the Kingdom of Italy. He entered the Capuchin Franciscan Order on 25 April 1839.

Priesthood He was ordained into the priesthood in Naples for the Franciscan Order on 24 January 1846 by Bishop Gennaro Pasca.

In November 1846, Persico was sent to Patna, in British India. Vicar Apostolic Anastasius Hartmann made him his socius and confidant. In 1850, Persico accompanied Hartmann to Bombay in what was then the Bombay Presidency of India. Persico was then transferred to the Apostolic Vicariate of Bombay. Persico assisted Hartmann in founding a seminary in Bombay and establishing the Bombay Catholic Examiner. In 1853, the Vatican was facing a schism among Portuguese and Indian priests in Goa, a small Indian colony of the Portuguese Empire. Bishop Hartmann sent Persico to Rome to discuss the problem with Pope Pius IX and then to London to do the same with the British Government.

Vicar Apostolic of Bombay and Agra

Persico was appointed on 8 March 1854 as coadjutor vicar apostolic for the Apostolic Vicariate of Bombay and Titular Bishop of Gratianopolis by Pius IX. Persico was consecrated by Hartmann on 4 June 1854. Persico returned in 1860 to Italy to recover his health. a political strategy to force British absentee landlords to lower the rents charged to financially-strapped Irish tenant farmers.

On 23 April 1888, before Persico could complete his report, the Congregation of the Holy Office declared its opposition to the Plan of Campaign and condemned the use of boycotting by Irish activists. In June 1888, Leo XIII was issued the encyclical "Saepe Nos", reinforcing and defending the condemnation. According to the author Edward Purcell, the ruling was a surprise and disappointment for Persico:"The promulgation of the Papal Rescript, condemning boycotting and the Plan of Campaign as grave offences against the moral law, took Mgr. Persico as much by surprise as it did Cardinal Manning; for both he and the Papal Delegate confidently expected that, in accordance with their joint suggestions, the condemnation of the immoral methods of the League would have been pronounced not directly by the Holy See, but by the Irish Episcopate." His mission in Ireland terminated, Persico returned to Rome much disappointed. He later commented, "I had no idea that anything had been done about Irish affairs, much less thought that some questions had been referred to the Holy Office, and the first knowledge I had of the decree was on the morning of the 28th April, when I received the bare circular sent me by Propaganda. I must add that had I known of such a thing I would have felt it my duty to make proper representations to the Holy See". On 16 January 1893, Persico was created cardinal priest of the title of St. Peter in Chains.

Death and legacy Persico died in Rome on 7 December 1895 and was buried at the Church of Propaganda Fide, Campo Verano Cemetery.