Lorenzo Lauri

Styles of Lorenzo Lauri
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Ephesus (titular)

Lorenzo Lauri (15 October 1864 – 8 October 1941) was an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Major Penitentiary from 1927 and Camerlengo from 1939 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1926.

Biography

Lauri was born in Rome, and studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary before being ordained a priest on 4 June 1887. He then taught at the Pontifical Roman Seminary and the Pontifical Urbaniana University until 1910; he had also served as an official of the Vicariate of Rome since 1895, and had been made a canon of the chapter of San Lorenzo in Damaso basilica in 1901. After being named Substitute of the regent of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary on 5 February 1910, Lauri was raised to the rank of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on 5 April of that same year.

On 5 January 1917, Lauri was appointed Internuncio to Peru and Titular Archbishop of Ephesus by Pope Benedict XV. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 21 January from Cardinal Donato Sbarretti, with Archbishop Vincenzo Sardi di Rivisondoli and Bishop Americo Bevilacqua serving as co-consecrators. Lauri became a full nuncio upon the establishment of complete diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Peru on 20 July 1917. He was later named Apostolic Nuncio to Poland on 25 May 1921, succeeding Achille Ratti. In this post, Lauri negotiated the concordat between the Vatican and the Second Polish Republic.

Pope Pius XI created Lauri Cardinal-Priest of San Pancrazio in the consistory of 20 December 1926, ending his time as Poland's nuncio. Returning to the Roman Curia, he was appointed Major Penitentiary on 31 July 1927. Cardinal Lauri also served as papal legate to the International Eucharistic Congress at Dublin in 1932. Lauri was Camerlengo on 15 June 1936 to 13 December 1937, and Protector of the Pontifical North American College from 1937 to 1941. It was to Cardinal Lauri that Pius XI made his final confession. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1939 papal conclave, which selected Pope Pius XII. The new Pope appointed Lauri to replace him as Camerlengo on 11 December of that year.

Cardinal Lauri died in Rome, at age 76 (a week before his next birthday). He is buried in the Campo Verano.