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Chigi

This is my favourite photo of Ludovico Chigi della Rovere Albani (Prince & Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, 8th Prince of Farnese and Campagnano, 4th Prince of Soriano, 8th Duke of Ariccia and of Formello, Marquess of Magliana Pecorareci, Hereditary Marshall of the Holy Roman Church and Guardian of the Conclave) who oversaw the rebuilding of Monte Cassino. Here, he distributes prizes to medical students at the International Missionary School of Medicine and Surgery.

Published at 5:43 am on Sunday 11 January 2009. Categories: Church History Order of Malta Tags: , , .
Comments

Catholics might like to ask themsleves by how many signs can they tell that this photograph was not taken in the last few days?

— Chrysostom 12 Jan 2009 10:03 am

The photo is evocative indeed. But one should be soberly aware that Chigi suffered very much during his last years, and from unexpected quarters: Cardinal Canali, already Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, coveted Chigi’s post as well, and kept his “venerable old friend” under such intense pressure that, worn out and fearful for the future of the Order he had done so much to revive, the poor man died of a heart attack only hours after a visit from one of Canali’s emissaries.
Chigi, by the way, was a particularly striking exemplar of the international character of Europe’s high nobility: his mother was a Princess zu Say-Wittgenstein-Sayn (whose own mother was a Russian princess), and his wife’s mother was a Rochefoucauld, whose own mother, in turn, was an Arenberg ex matre Lobkowitz.
His son, rather anticlimactically, married an American.

— Baron v Senden 12 Jan 2009 5:59 pm
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