Born in Bene Vagienna (Cuneo) on July 9, 1828.
Died in Rome on December 3, 1913.
Ordained a priest, he was first a referendum prelate of the Apostolic Signatura, then an internuncio in Holland. In 1866 he was elected titular archbishop of Damiata and destined nuncio to Brussels. In 1868 he moved to the nunciature of Lisbon, which he suddenly abandoned, given the poor results of his action, to the great embarrassment of the Secretariat of State. Nonetheless, on 22 December 1873 he was created Cardinal Priest of Sant'Anastasia by Pius IX. He then passed to the order of bishops, was bishop of Ostia and Velletri and became dean of the Sacred College. Of a difficult character, the prototype of the most marked intransigence, he found himself in the opposition of Leo XIII and showed little esteem for the choice made by the college of cardinals in the person of Pius X, towards whom he then showed a progressive coldness which finally reached the break, with great displeasure of the pope. Cardinal * Antonio Agliardi, perhaps exaggerating, commented on his disappearance by stating: «History will tell that he was born to harm the Holy Church».
A brief reference to Cardinal Oreglia is present in the autobiographical memoirs of Don Guanella. He recalls the Lenten he held in the parish of Trinità di Mondovì, during which he managed to suspend the parody performances of Blessed Paola Gambara of Bene Vagienna, «a center a short distance from Trinità di Mondovi and home of Cardinal Oreglia di Santo Stefano, created by Pius IX in the past year».
Sources
- Charles Snider The episcopate of Cardinal Andrea C. Ferrari, vol. II: The times of Pius X, Vicenza, Neri Pozza, 1982, p. 101.
- Hierarchia catholica medii et modernioris aevi, vol. VIII: 1846-1903, edited by Remigium Ritzler and Pirminum Sefrin, Padua, Editrice «Il Messaggero di S. Antonio», 1978, pp. 239, 45.
- Sacra Rituum Congregation, Romana beatificationis et canonizationis servi Dei Pii Papae X. Positio super virtutibus, Summary, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1949, p. 138 (witness Don Giuseppe Pescini).
Guanellian sources
- Louis Guanella The ways of Providence (1913-1314), ed Unpublished and posthumous writings (Published and unpublished works by Luigi Guanella, VI), Rome, Centro Studi Guanelliani - Nuove Frontiere, 2015, p. 737.
- Long live Pius X, in "The Divine Providence", 1903, p. 59.
Photography
Angelo Marchesan, Pope Pius X in his life and in his word. Historical study of his old pupil, Einsiedeln, Benzinger & Co., 1905, p. 477.
AM Dieguez
Guanellian Encyclopaedia
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