{{Short description|Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal}} {{Infobox Christian leader |type = Cardinal |image = Domenico Ferrata2.jpg |honorific_prefix = [[His Eminence]] |name = Domenico Ferrata |title = [[Cardinal Secretary of State]] |church = [[Roman Catholic Church]] |appointed = 4 September 1914 |term_end = 10 October 1914 |predecessor = [[Rafael Merry del Val|Rafael Merry del Val de Zulueta]] |successor = [[Pietro Gasparri]] |other_post = {{unbulleted list|[[Santa Prisca, Rome|Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca]] (1896–1914)|[[Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy|Cardinal-Protector of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy]] (1902–14)|[[Congregation of the Sacraments|Prefect of the Congregation of the Sacraments]] (1908–14)|[[Basilica of Saint John Lateran|Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran]] (1913–14)|[[Secretary of the Congregation of the Holy Office]] (1914)}} |ordination = 18 September 1869 |consecration = 19 April 1885 |consecrated_by = [[Luigi Jacobini|Lodovico Jacobini]] |cardinal = 22 June 1896 |created_cardinal_by = [[Pope Leo XIII]] |rank = [[Cardinal-Priest]] |birth_name = Domenico Ferrata |birth_date = 4 March 1847 |birth_place = [[Gradoli]], [[Montefiascone]], [[Viterbo]], [[Papal States]] |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1914|10|10|1847|03|04}} |death_place = [[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy]] |parents = Giovanni Battista Ferrata<br>Maria Antonuzzi |previous_post = {{unbulleted list|President of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy (1884–85)|[[Thessaloniki|Titular Archbishop of Thessalonica]] (1885–96)|[[Congregation for extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs|Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs]] (1889–91)|[[Apostolic Nuncio to France]] (1891-96)|[[Camerlengo of the Sacred College|Camerlengo of the College of Cardinals]] (1899–1900)|[[Congregation for Indulgences and Sacred Relics|Prefect of the Congregation of Indulgences and Sacred Relics]] (1899–1900)|[[Congregation for Rites|Prefect of the Congregation for Rites]] (1900–02)|[[Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars]] (1902–08)}} |coat_of_arms = COA cardinal IT Ferrata Domenico.png }}
'''Domenico Ferrata''' [[JUD]] (4 March 1847 – 10 October 1914) was an Italian [[Roman Catholic]] [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]] who spent most of his career in the diplomatic service of the [[Holy See]] and in the [[Roman Curia]].
==Life== Ferrata was born in [[Gradoli]], near [[Viterbo]] to Giovan Battista and Maria Antonuzzi Ferrata, who had a small farm. He had a brother, Angelo, who later became procurator general of the Augustinians.<ref name=miranda>[https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1896.htm Miranda, Salvador. "Ferrata, Domenico", Cardinals of the HOly Roman Church, Florida International University]</ref>
He first attended a local municipal school run by canon D. Collarini. Then he went to the Jesuit School of Orvieto. With the expulsion of the Jesuits from Orvieto, he spent the year 1860-61 in Gradoli, continuing however to study privately with Don GB Polverini. He then attended the Seminary of Montefiascone. Ferrata was appointed canon of the college of Gradoli. He took his degree in theology at [[Sapienza University of Rome|La Sapienza]] in Rome, where he studied scripture under [[Tommaso Martinelli]]. Ferrata was [[Holy Orders|ordained]] a [[priest]] in 1869.<ref name=Vercellone>[https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/domenico-ferrata_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ Vercellone, Guido Fagioli. "Ferrata,, Domenico", Treccani]</ref>
==Career== After ordination, Ferrata studied canon law at [[Pontifical Roman Athenaeum Saint Apollinare|S. Apollinare]]. He earned doctorates in both theology and civil and canon law. He then apprenticed at the [[Dicastery for the Clergy|Congregation of the Council]]. When Martelli became a cardinal in 1873, he made his former student his secretary. In January 1874 Ferrata was appointed procurator at the [[Sacred Congregation of Rites]].<ref name=Vercellone/>
In 1876, he taught canon law at the [[Pontifical Roman Major Seminary]], and the following year was made deputy chair of ecclesiastical history at [[Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide|Propaganda Fide]].<ref name=gente>[http://www.gentedituscia.it/ferrata-domenico/ "Ferrata, Domenico", ''Gente di Tuscia'', Dizionario Storico Biografico della Tuscia]</ref> In April 1877, he was appointed to the [[Section for Relations with States|Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs]], which handled diplomatic relations between the Holy See and foreign governments. When in 1879 the secretary of the congregation, [[Włodzimierz Czacki]] was appointed nuncio to France, he took Ferrata along as auditor.<ref name=Vercellone/> He returned to Rome in 1883 and was sent to Switzerland to resolve problems with the diocese of Basel. In 1884 he was made president of the [[Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy]], the training school for the diplomatic corps.
Consecrated a [[bishop]] in 1885, he served as [[nuncio]] to [[Belgium]]. He served as Secretary of the [[Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs]] from 20 April 1889 to 23 June 1891, when he was named nuncio to France where he was to pursue a [[reconciliation between the Church and the French state]]. He was elevated to cardinal by [[Pope Leo XIII]] in the [[Papal consistory|consistory]] of 22 June 1896 with the titular church of [[Santa Prisca, Rome]].<ref name=miranda/>
He spent the early part of his cardinalate in positions such as Prefect of the [[Congregation for Indulgences and Sacred Relics|Sacred Congregation for Indulgences and Sacred Relics]]. He was named Prefect of the [[Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments|Congregation for Divine Worship]].
In 1900, he was named prefect of the [[Sacred Congregation of Rites]] which handled the process for canonizations. In that capacity he oversaw much of the procedure regarding the cause of [[Joan of Arc]]. He participated in the conclave of 1903, which elected [[Pope Pius X]].<ref name=miranda/> In 1901, he was sent as nuncio to Paris by [[Pope Leo XIII]] with the mission to work for the [[reconciliation with the third French Republic]].<ref name=gente/>
As papal legate, he presided over the 1905 [[Canonical coronation]] of the image of the Immaculate Conception of Cospicua in Malta. Ferrata played an important part in the preparation of ''[[Quam singulari]]'' the 1910 decree concerning the admittance of children to communion. In 1913, he was named Archpriest of the patriarchal Lateran basilica. In the same year, he was appointed the Cardinal Legate for the XXIV International Eucharistic Congress in Malta. In January 1914 [[Pope Pius X]] named him to succeed [[Mariano Rampolla|Mariano Cardinal Rampolla]], who had died on 13 December 1913, as [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office]].
Pope Pius X died on 20 August 1914. Ferrata opened the conclave on 31 August 1914, celebrating the Mass of the Holy Spirit in the Pauline Chapel. The newly elected [[Pope Benedict XV]] appointed Ferrata Secretary of State, in place of [[Rafael Merry del Val]]. However, Ferrata was already in ill health and died the month after his appointment at age 67. He was buried in Gradoli.
==References== {{Reflist}}
<br> {{start box}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{succession box | before=[[Pietro Respighi]] | title=[[Basilica of St. John Lateran|Archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran]] | years=7 April 1913 – 10 October 1914| after=[[Basilio Pompili]]}} {{succession box | before=[[Mariano Rampolla|Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro]] | title=[[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office]] | years=3 January 1914 – 4 September 1914 | after=[[Rafael Merry del Val]]}} {{succession box | before=[[Rafael Merry del Val]] | title=[[Cardinal Secretary of State]] | years=4 September – 10 October 1914| after=[[Pietro Gasparri]]}} {{end box}}
{{Cardinals created by Leo XIII}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrata, Domenico Cardinal}} [[Category:1847 births|Ferrata]] [[Category:1914 deaths|Ferrata]] [[Category:People from the Province of Viterbo|Ferrata]] [[Category:20th-century Italian cardinals|Ferrata]] [[Category:Pope Benedict XV]] [[Category:Pope Leo XIII]] [[Category:Apostolic nuncios to Belgium]] [[Category:Cardinal secretaries of state]] [[Category:Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII]] [[Category:Members of the Holy Office]] [[Category:Members of the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments]] [[Category:Presidents of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy]] [[Category:Ralliement (Catholicism in France)]] [[Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Leo XIII]] [[Category:19th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops]] [[Category:Cardinal-priests of Santa Prisca]]