Luigi Lavitrano

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Styles of Luigi Cardinal Lavitrano


Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Palermo (emeritus)

Luigi Cardinal Lavitrano (March 7, 1874—August 2, 1950) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Palermo from 1928 to 1944, and Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious from 1945 until his death. Lavitrano was elevated to the cardinalate in 1929.

[edit] Biography

Born in Forio, Luigi Lavitrano lost his entire family in an earthquake in 1883 that devastated the island of Ischia. He studied at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Pontifical Athenaeum S. Apollinare, Royal University, and Pontifical Leonine Institute in Rome. Lavitrano was ordained to the priesthood on March 21, 1898, and then taught at the Leonine Institute until 1910, when he became its rector. He was raised to the rank of Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness on March 8, 1904.

On May 25, 1914, Lavitrano was appointed Bishop of Cava e Sarno by Pope Pius X. He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 21 from Basilio Cardinal Pompilj, with Bishops Giovanni Regine and Giovanni Scotti serving as co-consecrators. Lavitrano was later named Archbishop of Benevento on July 16, 1924, and Archbishop of Palermo on September 29, 1928. Between these two positions, he served as Apostolic Administrator of Castellammare di Stabia from 1924 to 1925.

Pope Pius XI created him Cardinal Priest of S. Silvestro in Capite in the consistory of December 16, 1929. Lavitrano, who once scolded Italian Catholics for their religious negligence^[1], was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1939 papal conclave that selected Pope Pius XII. After resigning as Palermo's archbishop in December 1944, he was made Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious in the Roman Curia on May 14, 1945.

Lavitrano died in Marino, in the Alban Hills, at age 76. He is buried in the basilica of Santa Maria di Loreto in his native Forio.

Lavitrano, then Archbishop of Palermo, voted for the National Fascist Party in the 1929 Italian general elections^[2].

Preceded by Giuseppe Izzo	Bishop of Cava e Sarno 1914–1924	Succeeded by Pasquale Dell'Isola
Preceded by Alessio Ascalesi, CPPS	Archbishop of Benevento 1924–1928	Succeeded by Adeodato Piazza
Preceded by Alessandro Cardinal Lualdi	Archbishop of Palermo 1928–1944	Succeeded by Ernesto Ruffini
Preceded by Vincenzo Lapuma	Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious 1945–1950	Succeeded by Clemente Micara