Rafael Merry Del Val Y Zulueta

Rafael Merry del Val y Zulueta, (10 October 1865 – 26 February 1930) was a Spanish Roman Catholic cardinal.

Before becoming a cardinal, he served as the secretary of the papal conclave of 1903 that elected Pope Pius X, who is said to have accepted his election through Merry del Val's encouragement. Pius X later appointed him as the
Cardinal Secretary of State. Merry del Val's writings and example prompted greater popularity for the Litany of Humility, which was for some decades incorrectly attributed to him. He was greatly responsible to restoring the privileges to Hispanic countries, which honor him for the devotions and traditionalist practices he fostered by personally signing and executing their petitions to the Holy Office.

A cause for his canonization was opened in 1953 at the behest of Pope Pius XII. He now has the title Servant of God.

Early life

He was born as Rafael María José Pedro Francisco Borja Domingo Gerardo de la Santísima Trinidad Merry del Val y Zulueta at the Spanish Embassy in London, England, the second of four sons of a nobleman, Rafael Carlos Merry del Val, secretary to the Spanish legation in London. His mother was Sofia Josefa de Zulueta (died 1925), elder daughter of Pedro José de Zulueta, count of Torre Díaz, of the London bank of Zulueta & Co., and his wife, Sophia Ann Wilcox, who was of English ancestry. The Merrys were originally an Irish Catholic family (the O’Hoolachan family of the County of Connaught) but anglicized their name to Merry in order to avoid the prosecutions of Roman Catholics that the English were wont to carry out. The O’Hoolachan branch from which Rafael descended were Irish merchants who settled in County Waterford in the 18th century before moving to Seville. In Spain, one Rafael Merry (grandfather of His Eminence) married María Trinidad del Val y Gómez de Sevilla, of Aragonese nobility. María Trinidad, the Cardinal's grandmother, was soon widowed however, and moved to Madrid as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabel II.

His father, also named Rafael, studied Law before joining the Diplomatic service. One of his first destinations was to the Spanish embassy in Paris during the time of the Second French Empire, during which time he became a close friend of Empress Eugénie de Montijo, herself a Spaniard. It was also during this time that he befriended Pedro José de Zulueta y Madariaga, a son of the counts of Torre-Díaz who had established himself as a successful banker under his own firm, Zulueta & Co. The young Rafael was united in matrimony to one of his daughters, Josefina de Zulueta y Willcox, marrying in Madrid on the 3rd of February 1863. Rafael was then sent to London in diplomatic mission. Thus, the couple moved into the house of Josefina's own grandfather, situated on Devonshire Place, 21, where their five children were born: Alfonso, also a diplomat; Rafael, a Roman-Catholic cardinal and Secretary of State to St. Pius X; Pedro, María y Domingo. His elder brother Alfonso was the first Marquess of Merry del Val (b. 1864) and Spanish ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1913 and 1931.

Education

Merry del Val lived in England until 1878. His mother's family owned a large villa in Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth. He attended a Jesuit preparatory school in Bournemouth at the time the Society was establishing what were to become five parishes and a school. He received his first Holy Communion at Sacred Heart Church on Richmond Hill, and later enrolled at the northern seminary of Ushaw College in County Durham in northern England. He was ordained a priest on 30 December 1888 after receiving a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He later received a doctorate in theology and then a licentiate in canon law.

Domestic prelate, archbishop and cardinal

In 1891 he became a privy chamberlain

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