Massimo Massimi

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Styles of Massimo Cardinal Massimi
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	none

Massimo Cardinal Massimi (April 10, 1877—March 6, 1954) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in the Roman Curia from 1946 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935.

[edit] Biography

Massimo Massimi was born in Rome to Prospero Massimi, a lawyer, and his wife Luisa Guerra. Baptized in the church of Santa Maria in Portico, he studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary (from where he obtained his doctorates in theology and canon law) alongside Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII. He then attended the University of Rome, earning a doctorate in civil law. Massimi was ordained by Archbishop Giuseppe Ceppetelli on April 14, 1900, in the Lateran Basilica.

While doing pastoral work in Rome until 1908, he was named a professor at the "Institutions of Civil Law" of the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare on November 18, 1904. He entered the Roman Curia on October 20, 1908, as a Promoter of Justice in the Roman Rota. Raised to the rank of Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness on May 18, 1911, Massimi was later made auditor (November 29, 1915), pro-dean (February 19, 1924), and dean (May 1, 1926) of the Roman Rota.

On September 21, 1932, Massimi was appointed the president of the commission for the redaction of a project of law on the judicial and procedural regulations of the tribunal of Vatican City. Pope Pius XI created him Cardinal Deacon of S. Maria in Portico in the consistory of December 16, 1935. Massimi was made President of the Pontifical Commission for the Codification of Oriental Canon Law on February 17, 1936, and served as a cardinal elector in the 1939 papal conclave that selected Pope Pius XII, who named him President of the Pontifical Commission for the Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law on March 14, 1939.

After ten years' standing as a Cardinal Deacon, Massimi opted for the order of Cardinal Priests and his title was elevated pro hac vice in the consistory of February 18, 1946. Pius XII made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, and thus the highest judicial authority in the Church below the Pope himself, on May 29, 1946.

Massimi died at 5:20 a.m. in Rome, having earlier received viaticum at 3:00 a.m. Originally buried at the Campo di Verano cemetery, his remains were later transferred in October 1976 to the church of Santa Maria in Portico, which had been the church of his baptism as well as his titular church.

[edit] External links

• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
• Catholic-Hierarchy