Luigi Nazari di Calabiana (1808 – 1893) was an Italian churchman and politician: a senator of the
Kingdom of Sardinia and
Archbishop of Milan.
Biography
He was born on 27 July 1808 in
Savigliano to Filippo, count of
Calabiana, and the noblewoman Sofia Toesca of the counts of Castezzo. On 18 March 1847 he was appointed
bishop of Casale Monferrato
The Diocese of Casale Monferrato (Latin: ''Dioecesis Casalensis'') is a Roman Catholic diocese in northwest Italy, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Vercelli which forms part of the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont. by
Charles Albert of Sardinia
Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 until 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independence ...
and consecrated bishop on 6 June 1847 in Rome by Cardinal Ugo Pietro Spinola. As bishop of Casale he was involved in the successful campaign to save its ancient Romanesque cathedral from demolition.
On 3 May 1848 he was nominated as Italian Senate, senator by king Charles Albert, taking the oath on 22 May of that year. He unsuccessfully opposed Siccardi reforms of 1850, which were intended to revoke certain ancient privileges which the Catholic Church enjoyed in Piedmont, and he led the opposition to further reforms in 1855, intended to institute a "free church in a free state", provoking the ''Calabiana crisis'' which forced the resignation of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Cavour, although again the legislation was passed into law.
In 1867 he was named by Pope Pius IX archbishop of Milan, and his appointment solved the crisis in such important and large diocese. Actually the previous archbishop Paolo Angelo Ballerini of Milan had been suggested by the Franz Joseph I of Austria, Austrian emperor, but he was not allowed to enter in the town by the
Kingdom of Sardinia that took possession of the Lombardy after the Second Italian War of Independence. So with the appointment of Nazari di Calabiana Milan again had a residence bishop. In the frame of the hostility between the Holy See and the kingdom of Sardinia (later Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946), Kingdom of Italy), Nazari di Calabiana was considered to be on conciliatory positions, while the previous archbishop Ballerini, who during Nazari's reign resided in Seregno near Milan, remained a fierce opponent of the Reign. Nazari di Calabian was never created cardinal.
As archbishop of Milan, Nazari di Calabiana is remembered for his social activity, for the erection of new churches in the suburbs of the town and for the discovery of the relics of Saint Ambrose and Gervasius and Protasius founded in an old sarcophagus buried under the altar of Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio.
At the First Vatican Council he was the leader of the minority of Italian bishops who opposed the introduction of the doctrine of papal infallibility, but after the proclamation of the dogma he promptly undersigned it. In 2000 it was claimed by one scholar that he was one of the consecrators of Church of England episcopus vagans Frederick Lee (priest), Frederick George Lee in the Order of Corporate Reunion.
Luigi Nazari di Calabiana died in Milan on 23 October 1893.
References
* Pierluigi Piano (ed.)
''Notizie Storiche della città di Casale Monferrato: un inedito dalla Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano'' Circolo Culturale “I Marchesi del Monferrato”, 2008.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazari di Calabiana, Luigi
1808 births
1893 deaths
People from the Province of Cuneo
19th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops
Archbishops of Milan
Burials at Milan Cathedral
Italian untitled nobility
Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy
People from Casale Monferrato
Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Sardinia