- Fausto Poli
Fausto Poli (
February 17 ,1581 –October 7 ,1653 ) was a Roman Catholic prelate.Biography
Born in
Usigni inUmbria , as a young man he went toRome and was soon noticed by Maffeo Barberini, a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber and a fellow Umbrian from nearbySpoleto , soon to become Pope under the name ofUrban VIII . In 1632 he was made Majordomo and Prefect of the Lateran palace, in which posts he was responsible for supervising church and court ceremonial. In 1633 he was consecratedtitular archbishop of Amasia "in partibus".As private secretary to Pope Urban, among his most valuable services was that of purchasing old works of art, or commissioning new works, for that inveterate collector; among the artists he encouraged was
Claude Lorrain . He was rewarded at the end of Urban's pontificate by being raised to the purple as cardinal priest of S. Crisogono on Aug. 31, 1643. He was appointedbishop of Orvieto in 1644.Throughout his life, he remained very devoted to his home town and region. In addition to beautifying Usigni, he was instrumental in developing iron mines in the area, and he was also so greatly devoted to Rita of Cascia (beatified by Urban in 1627), adorning her church in that town and promoting her cult, that he is often considered to have been the main force in establishing her present cult and popularity. The second edition (1652) of Girolamo de Ghetti's "Breve Racconto della Vita e Miracoli della B. Rita da Cascia" is dedicated to him.
Poli died in Orvieto in 1653: he was buried according to his wishes in the Chapel of the Guardian Angel in his titular church of
San Crisogono .External links
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1643.htm#Poli Cardinal Poli biographical sketch]
* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Umbria/Perugia/Poggiodomo/Usigni/home.html The Usigni pages] of Thayer's Gazetteer of Umbria contain further information on Cardinal Poli
* [http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bycountry/italy/rome/popolo/pics/0104/P10491.jpgTomb and bust in S. Crisogono]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
