cardinal Emanuele de Gregorio

(55) 14. DE GREGORIO, Emmanuele (1758-1839)

Birth. December 18 (or 28), 1758, at sea while his mother was travelling to Spain; the birth was registered in Naples. Fourth of the seven children of Leopoldo De Gregorio, marquis of Squillace and prince of S. Elia, minister and secretary of State of the Two Sicilies, and his second wife, María Josefa Verdugo y Quijada, of a distinguished family from Barcelona. The other siblings were Carlo, Antonio Maria, Girolamo, Maria Giuseppa, Angela Maria and Maria N. His first name is also listed as Emanuele. Half-brother on his father's side of Cardinal Giovanni de Gregorio (1785).

Education.Studied at Collegio Clementino, Roma.

Priesthood. Ordained (no information found). Privy chamberlain supernumerary of Pope Pius VI, March 1781. Domestic prelate of His Holiness. Abbreviatore del Parco maggiore. Relator of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature of Grace, September 1783. Vicar of Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico, archpriest of the patriarchal Lateran basilica, April 1785. Prelate of the S. C. of the Council, July 1785. Lieutenent civil of the tribunal of the Vicariate of Rome, August 1786. Incarcerated with Pope Pius VI in 1798, during the Roman Republica; freed upon payment of a bail of 4.000 scudi. French General Dallemagne and the republican government planned to create him antipope in opposition to Pius VI. He fled to Siena to assure the pope of his loyalty and inform him of what was being planned against him. Pro-vicar of Rome and apostolic delegate during the absence of Cardinal Giulio Maria della Somaglia, who was vicar of Rome from 1795 to 1818. Pro-nuncio before Louis de Bourbon, King of Etruria. Secretary of the S.C. of the Tridentine Council, 1808. During the French occupation of Rome and the exile of Cardinal Michele di Pietro, was apostolic delegate of the pope in Rome. Forced to go to Paris, arrested on January 2, 1811 and kept in captivity until 1814. Freed on April 1, 1814, remained in France trying to recover the Vatican treasures stolen by the French army.

Cardinalate. Created cardinal priest in the consistory of March 8, 1816; received the red hat, March 11,1816; and the title of S. Alessio, April 29, 1816. Prefect of the S.C. of Ecclesiastical Immunity, November 29, 1818. Prefect of the S.C. of the Tridentine Council, May 6, 1820. Participated in the conclave of 1823, which elected Pope Leo XII. Participated in the conclave of 1829, which elected Pope Pius VIII.

Episcopate. Opted for the order of bishops and the suburbicarian see of Frascati, May 18, 1829, retaining in commendam the title of S. Alessio. Consecrated, May 31, 1829, Rome, by Cardinal Giulio Maria della Somaglia. Grand penitentiary, May 31, 1829 until his death. Archimandrite of Messina, Sicily. Participated in the conclave of 1830-1831, which elected Pope Gregory XVI. Secretary of Apostolic Briefs, December 11, 1834. Opted for the suburbicarian see of Porto e Santa Rufina and Civitavecchia, October 2, 1837. Sub-dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, February 12, 1838 until February 18, 1839.

Death. November 7, 1839, Rome. Exposed in the church of S. Andrea delle Fratte, Rome, where the funeral took place, and buried in the church of S. Giuseppe a Capo le Case, Rome, of the nuns of St. Theresa.

Bibliography. Boutry, Philippe. Souverain et Pontife : recherches prosopographiques sur la curie romaine à l'âge de la restauration, 1814-1846. Rome : École française de Rome, 2002, pp. 357-358; Del Re, Niccolò. "I cardinali prefetti della Sacra Congregazione del Concilio dalle origini ad oggi (1564-1964)." Apollinaris, XXXVII (1964), pp. 133-134; Moroni, Gaetano. Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica da S. Pietro sino ai nostri giorni. 103 vols. in 53. Venezia : Tipografia Emiliana, 1840-1861, XXXIII, 10-16; Ritzler, Remigium, and Pirminum Sefrin. Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi. Volumen VII (1800-1846). Patavii : Typis et Sumptibus Domus Editorialis "Il Messaggero di S. Antonio" apud Basilicam S. Antonii, 1968, pp. 11, 38, 39 and 40; Weber, Christoph and Becker, Michael. Genealogien zur Papstgeschichte. 6 v. Stuttgart : Anton Hiersemann, 1999-2002. (Päpste und Papsttum, Bd. 29, 1-6), III, 350.

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