Ignatius Persico

{{Short description|Italian cardinal}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox Christian leader |type = Cardinal |image = Cardinal Ignatius Persico.jpg |honorific_prefix = His Eminence |name = Ignazio Persico |honorific_suffix = O.F.M. Cap. |title = Prefect of the Congregation for Indulgences and Sacred Relics |church = Roman Catholic Church |appointed = 30 May 1893 |term_end = 7 December 1895 |predecessor = Luigi Sepiacci |successor = Andreas Steinhuber |other_post = Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli (1893–95) |ordination = 24 January 1846 |ordained_by = Gennaro Pasca |consecration = 4 June 1854 |consecrated_by = Anastasius Hartmann |cardinal = 16 January 1893 |created_cardinal_by = Pope Leo XIII |rank = Cardinal-Priest |birth_name = Pietro Persico |birth_date = 30 January 1823 |birth_place = Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1895|12|07|1823|01|30}} |death_place = Rome, Kingdom of Italy |buried = Campo Verano |parents = Francesco Xaverio Persico<br />Giuseppina Pennacchio |previous_post = {{unbulleted list|Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Bombay (1854–56)|Titular Bishop of Gratianopolis (1854–70)|Vicar Apostolic of Agra (1856–60)|Bishop of Savannah (1870–72)|Titular Bishop of Bolina (1874–79)|Coadjutor Bishop of Aquino (1878–79)|Coadjutor Bishop of Pontecorvo (1878–79)|Coadjutor Bishop of Sora (1878–79)|Bishop of Aquino (1879–87)|Bishop of Pontecorvo (1879–87)|Bishop of Sora (1879–87)|Titular Archbishop of Tamiathis (1887–93)|Secretary of the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith (1891–93)}} }}

'''Ignazio Camillo Guglielmo Maria Pietro Persico''' (30 January 1823 – 7 December 1895) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.<ref name=FIU>[https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1893.htm Florida International University, Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church website, ''Biographical Dictionary of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Consistory of January 16, 1893 (XVIII)'']</ref>

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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ignazio Camillo Guglielmo Maria Pietro Cardinal Persico [Catholic-Hierarchy] |url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bpersico.html |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Hess">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11725a.htm Hess, Lawrence. "Ignatius Persico." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 14 February 2020{{PD-notice}}</ref>

== Vicar Apostolic of Bombay and Agra == thumb|293x293px|Indian Rebellion of 1857 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.<ref name=":0" />

In 1855, Persico was appointed visitor of the Apostolic Vicariate of Agra in Agra, in British India. He was later named vicar apostolic of that district. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British occupation forces, Persico was in danger several times, which caused his health to deteriorate. He wrote an eyewitness account of the events in Agra that was published in 1858.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Flora |first=Giuseppe |year=1993 |title=An Italian Missionary Narrative of the Indian Mutiny |journal=Studies in History |series=new |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=265–78 |doi=10.1177/025764309300900206 |s2cid=162296737}}</ref> Persico returned in 1860 to Italy to recover his health.<ref name="Hess" />

== Later positions == In 1866, the Vatican sent Persico to the United States to perform mission work. While there, he participated in the Council of Baltimore.<ref name=FIU />

On 11 March 1870, Persico was appointed by Pius IX as bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in the Southern United States. However, Pius IX accepted his resignation from this position due to continuing health problems on August 25, 1872.

In 1874, Pius IX named Persico as titular bishop of Bolina and sent him to serve in Canada as an apostolic delegate. In 1877, he was sent back to India to settle a church schism.<ref name="Hess" />

== Bishop of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo == On 15 July 1878, Persico was appointed by Pope Leo XIII as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo, in Italy. On 26 March 1879, he automatically became bishop of that diocese after the death of Bishop Paolo do Niquesa. On 5 March 1887, Persico resigned his post.<ref name=FIU />

== Roman Curia == thumb|292x292px|Eviction of family in Ireland by British landlord, 1888 On 14 March 1887, Leo XIII promoted Persico to the Roman Curia and appointed him as titular archbishop of Tamiatha.

Leo XIII then sent Persico to serve as apostolic delegate to Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, to evaluate the ties between the Irish clergy and the Irish nationalist movement.<ref name=FIU /> Persico quickly realized that he needed to consider the history of Ireland in addition to the current politics and delayed his report to analyze it. At that time, the Irish National League was promoting the Plan of Campaign,<ref>[https://www.dib.ie/biography/parnell-charles-stewart-a7199 Dictionary of Irish Biography website, ''Parnell, Charles Stewart'']</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/16012a.htm New Advent website, ''Boycotting'']</ref> 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:<blockquote>"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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Purcell |first=Edward Sheridan |title=Purcell, Life of Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster |publisher=MacMillan |year=1896 |volume=II |location=London |page=624}}</ref> </blockquote>His mission in Ireland terminated, Persico returned to Rome much disappointed. He later commented, <blockquote>"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".<ref>[http://www.failteromhat.com/book/mcdonnell-homerule.htm McDonnell on Home Rule (1908) page 104-108]</ref></blockquote>On 16 January 1893, Persico was created cardinal priest<ref name=FIU /><ref name=savannah>{{Cite web |url=https://archives.diosav.org/bishop-persico |title="The Right Reverend Ignatius Persico, D.D.", The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah |access-date=14 February 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804052729/https://archives.diosav.org/bishop-persico |url-status=dead }}</ref> of the title of St. Peter in Chains.<ref>[https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/tce/i/ignatius-persico.html StudyLight website, ''Ignatius Persico'']</ref>

== Death and legacy == Persico died in Rome on 7 December 1895 and was buried at the Church of Propaganda Fide, Campo Verano Cemetery.<ref name="FIU" />

==See also== {{Portal|Catholicism}} {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * Catholic Church hierarchy * Catholic Church in the United States * Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States * List of Catholic bishops of the United States {{div col end}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{commonscat}}

*[http://diosav.org/ Roman Catholic Diocese of Savanna] {{Catholic|wstitle=Ignatius Persico}}

{{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{succession box | before=Augustin Verot | title=Bishop of Savannah | years=1870–1874 | after=William Hickley Gross }} {{s-end}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Persico, Ignatius}} Category:1823 births Category:1896 deaths Category:Capuchin bishops Category:Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Category:Capuchin missionaries in India Category:Italian expatriates in India Category:Italian expatriates in the United States Category:Diocese of Kangding Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Savannah, Georgia Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Pius IX Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Leo XIII Category:19th-century Italian cardinals Category:Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII Category:Capuchin cardinals Category:Officials of the Roman Curia Category:Diplomats for the Holy See Category:Burials at Campo Verano