Michele Mazzarino

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Michele Mazzarino, or Mazzarini, also known as Michel Mazarin, (Pescina, 1 September 1605 – Rome, 31 August 1648) was an Italian Cardinal and statesman in the service of France.[1]

Early life

Mazzarino was born in Pescina, Italy, then part of the Kingdom of Naples,[2] but was raised in Rome. His birth name was Alessandro.[3] His father was Pietro Mazzarini, and his mother was Ortensia Buffalini, a woman of a noble family of Città di Castello in Umbria, and god-daughter of Filippo I Colonna, the grand Constable of Naples.[4] He was one of six children, the oldest of whom Jules Mazarin (Mazzarino), would become Cardinal and chief minister under Louis XIV of France.[5]

Mazzarino entered the Dominican Order at the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome in 1620, at age 15 and took the name Michele in honor of his grand-uncle Cardinal Michele Bonelli.[3] He was sent in 1624 to complete his studies at studia of the Order in Viterbo and Bologna where he studied theology with Tommaso Turco.

Ecclesiastic career

Mazzarino was ordained a priest in 1628. After his ordination he taught theology at the College of Saint Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.[3] Mazzarino became provincial of the Dominican Order in Puglia 1635. In 1637 Master General of the Order of Preachers Niccolò Ridolfi appointed Mazzarino Vicar of the Roman Province, and in April 1638 he was elected Provincial.[3]

Mazzarino was appointed Master of the Sacred Palace under Pope Urban VIII in 1642. At the suggestion of his brother Cardinal Mazarin, Michele was made Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence in 1645 by Pope Innocent X. In October 1647 he was elevated to cardinal and was named Cardinal-Priest of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in December of that same year.[1] He was appointed Viceroy of Catalonia and went to Barcelona in January 1648 but fell ill and was forced to leave without officially taking up the post. He returned to Rome as ambassador to the Holy See for France but died the following month, on 31 August 1648.[4]

Legacy

Mazzarino was the promoter of the "Mazarin district" in Aix-en-Provence located south of the Cours Mirabeau.[6]

References and notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Michel Cardinal Mazarin by David M. Cheney (Catholic Hierarchy, last updated 8 September 2012)
  2. ↑ Note: Pescina is now in the Abruzzo region of Italy.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Michele al secolo Alessandro Mazzarino (Treccani.it, accessed 9 March 2013)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Michel Mazarin by S. Miranda (Florida International University, last updated May 2012)
  5. ↑ Spain in Italy: Politics, Society, and Religion 1500-1700 by Thomas James Dandelet (BRILL, 2007)
  6. ↑ Aix-en-Provence Tourism (Accessed 9 March 2013)
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