Francesco Segna

Francesco Cardinal Segna ( born August 31, 1836 in Poggio Ginolfo, Abruzzo, Italy, † January 4, 1911 in Rome ) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Cardinal librarian.

Life

Francesco Segna was born the son of a noble and rich family in Poggio Ginolfo in Italy. He attended a Jesuit school and later the Roman Seminary, where he received his doctorate in theology. At the University of La Sapienza he received his doctorate in law. He was ordained priest on 20 December 1860.

In 1869 he was appointed professor of dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare. He served as a canon lawyer for Apostolic Penitentiary. While in Rome, he was undersecretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs from 1881. 1884 he was appointed Monsignor. He left Rome in 1884, to be Auditor of the Nunciature in Spain and in 1887, he was promoted to the charge d'affaires. After service in Spain in 1888, he returned back to Rome to be an auditor of the Roman Rota.

In the consistory of 18 May 1894, he was called by Pope Leo XIII. made a cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Portico. On July 4, 1896, made ​​a cardinal librarian of the Vatican Secret Archives. He was one of the cardinal electors in the conclave of 1903 that elected Pius X.. He was cardinal deacon ( the senior cardinal deacon ). On January 13, 1908, he was employed as Prefect of the Congregation of the Index, this position held until his death in 1911.