Luigi Lambruschini

Luigi Lambruschini (6 March 1776 – 12 May 1854) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in the mid nineteenth century. He was a member of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul and served in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See.

Biography Early life The youngest of ten children, he was born in Sestri Levante, then part of the independent Republic of Genoa, to Bernardo and Pellegrina Raggi Lambruschini, and baptized Emmanuele Nicolo. His older brother, Giovanni Battista Lambruschini became bishop of the Diocese of Orvieto.

Lambruschini attended a Jesuit school in Santa Margherita Ligure, and then the Oratorio di San Bartolomeo in Bordighera, run by the Order of the Barnabites. He entered the order in 1793, and after a novitiate, pronounced solemn vows in November 1794, taking the name of Luigi. He was then to Macerata for further study, took minor orders in Rome in 1797, and was ordained a priest back home in Sestri Levante in January 1799. He then taught Barnabite seminarians rhetoric, philosophy and mathematics, first in Bologna, then in San Severino Marche and, from May 1801, in Macerata. As secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, he took part in concluding concordats with various states, including Tuscany, Naples, and Bavaria. According to Umberto Benigni, "Next to Consalvi and Pacca, Lambruschini was among the greatest diplomats of the Holy See in the nineteenth century." For the next four years, Cardinal Lambruschini held various curial posts until in January 1836 he was appointed Secretary of State to Pope Gregory XVI. His appointment was seen as a compromise between those who hoped for reform and the zealanti who wished to see dissent more forcefully suppressed; although it was said that the Cardinal was "liberal chiefly in his employment of spies and prisons".

He was the leading conservative candidate in the 1846 papal conclave. Though he received a majority of the votes initially, it was clear that he could not achieve the required two-thirds majority. He was eventually defeated by the liberal candidate, Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, the Archbishop (personal title) of Imola, who became Pope Pius IX.

Lambruschini was a particularly hated figure among the masonic republicans during the 1848 Revolutions that temporarily deposed Pope Pius IX. His house was ransacked and he was forced to flee for his life, disguised as a stablehand. He returned following the Pope's restoration. He died in Rome on 12 May 1854 and was buried in the Barnabite church of San Carlo ai Catinari, Rome.