Luigi Fransoni

Most Reverend Luigi Fransoni
Metropolitan Archbishop of Turin
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Archdiocese	Archdiocese of Turin
Appointed	24 February 1832
Term ended	20 April 1856
Predecessor	Columbano Giovanni Battista Carlo Gaspare Chiaverotti
Successor	Alessandro Riccardi di Netro
Orders
Ordination	11 December 1814
Consecration	13 August 1821 by Pietro Francesco Galleffi
Personal details
Born	(1789-03-29)29 March 1789 Genoa, Republic of Genoa
Died	Lyon, French Empire
Nationality	Genovese (1789–1797); Ligurian (1797–1805); French (1805–1814); Sardinian (1815–1861); Italian (1861–1862)
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post	Bishop of Fossano (1821–1832)

Luigi Giovanni Battista Maria Alessandro Fransoni (29 March 1789 – 26 March 1862) was an Italian Catholic archbishop. A staunch defender of ecclesiastical prerogatives against the anticlericalism of the Siccardi laws, he was harshly persecuted by the Savoy government.

Biography

Born in Genoa on March 29, 1789, he was the youngest child of a powerful Genoese family. His parents, the Marquis Domenico Fransoni (1742–1820), a former governor of Chiavari and senator of the Republic of Genoa as well as a discreet astronomer, and Marquise Battina Carrega (died 1831). The highly devout Fransoni family also boasted among its members some illustrious church and government men from the Ligurian capital, such as Matteo Fransoni, elected doge of Genoa in 1758, and Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, Luigi's older brother. His godfather at his baptism ceremony was indeed Giacomo Maria Brignole, who was also the last Doge of Genoa.

The French Revolution, which had penetrated the Italian coast following the French occupation of Genoa in June 1797, forced the Fransoni family to flee the city, taking refuge first in Florence, then in Ancona and finally in Rome, from which, however, with the proclamation of the Roman Republic, they were again forced to flee. They returned to Rome for good, however, after September 25, 1799, that is, when the papal government was restored by the Russians, British and Austrians.

He was ordained a priest in Rome on December 11, 1814, and was subsequently elected Bishop of Fossano on August 13, 1821. Appointed apostolic administrator of Turin in August 1831, he was finally elected metropolitan archbishop of Turin on February 24, 1832. Esteemed by kings Charles Felix of Savoy and, before 1848, Charles Albert of Savoy, he was listened to as an adviser to them in ecclesiastical affairs. On June 5, 1841 he ordained Saint Don Bosco into the priesthood.

He was the leader of Piedmont's intransigent bishops. In 1850 after the approval of the Siccardi laws in the Kingdom of Sardinia he demonstrated his firm opposition by calling on the clergy to disobedience and refusing to administer the sacraments to the dying minister Pietro De Rossi di Santarosa, who had responsibility for the anticlerical laws.

According to the chronicles of the time, the prelate's behavior toward the dying Santarosa aroused such outrage in Piedmontese public opinion (cleverly exploited by Cavour through his newspaper) that Fransoni risked being lynched and it seems that the police arrested him mainly to ensure his personal safety. He was locked up in the prison of the Fenestrelle Fort, had his wealth confiscated and then "banned in perpetuity" from his homeland. Archbishop Fransoni spent the remaining portion of his life exiled in Lyon.

True to his principles, he always refused to relinquish his see, despite pressure to do so even from Pope Pius IX, who would have preferred to be able to appoint a new archbishop who could look after the archdiocese in such difficult times. He died in exile in Lyon on March 26, 1862.

Episcopal lineage

Fransoni's episcopal lineage, or apostolic succession was:

• Cardinal Scipione Rebiba
• Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio
• Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio
• Archbishop Galeazzo Sanvitale
• Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi
• Cardinal Luigi Caetani
• Cardinal Ulderico Carpegna
• Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni
• Pope Benedict XIII
• Pope Benedict XIV
• Pope Clement XIII
• Cardinal Bernardino Giraud
• Cardinal Alessandro Mattei
• Cardinal Pietro Francesco Galleffi

Honors

Partial list of honours and awards received by Archbishop Fransoni
	Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus	Knight Grand Cross	House of Savoy
	Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation	Knight	House of Savoy

References

• Colomiatti, Emanuele (1902). Mons. Luigi dei marchesi Fransoni, arcivescovo di Torino 1832-1862. Torino: G. Derossi.
• Griseri, Giuseppe (1966). "L'allontanamento e la mancata rinunzia di mons. Luigi Fransoni," Bollettino storico biografico subalpino, Vol. LXIV, pp. 375–492.
• Griseri, Giuseppe (1998). "Fransoni, Luigi." In: Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Vol. 50. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
• Guasco, Maurilio (1997). Storia del clero in Italia dall'Ottocento a oggi. Roma: Laterza, pp. 64–65.
• Mellano, Maria Franca (1964). Il caso Fransoni e la politica ecclesiastica piemontese (1848-1850). Roma: Pontificia Università Gregoriana.
• Ratti, Guido (1968). "Contributo alla biografia di Giuseppe Siccardi: la missione a Portici (settembre-novembre 1849)." In: Figure e gruppi della classe dirigente piemontese nel Risorgimento. Torino: Comitato di Torino dell'Istituto per la Storia del Risorgimento, pp. 107–97.

External links

• Archbishop Luigi Fransoni
• Works by Luigi Fransoni at Gallica

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Columbano Giovanni Battista Carlo Gaspare Chiaverotti	Metropolitan Archbishop of Turin 1832–1862	Succeeded by Alessandro Riccardi di Netro
Preceded by Maurizio Bertone	Bishop of Fossano 1821–1832	Succeeded by Ferdinando Bruno di Tornaforte