Charles Januarius Acton, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Charles Januarius Acton

Catholic cardinal

Date of Birth: 06-Mar-1803

Place of Birth: Naples, Campania, Italy

Date of Death: 23-Jun-1847

Profession: Catholic priest

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Charles Januarius Acton

  • Charles Januarius Edward Acton was an English cardinal born at Naples, 6 March 1803; died at Naples, 23 June 1847.He was the second son of Sir John Francis Acton, 6th Baronet.
  • The family, a cadet branch of the Actons of Aldenham Park, near Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, had settled in Naples some time before his birth.
  • His father was first minister of the Kingdom of Naples when he succeeded to the family estate and title through the death of his cousin, Sir Richard Acton, 5th Baronet.
  • The Cardinal's education was English, as he and his elder brother were sent to England on their father's death in 1811 to a school near London kept by the AbbĂ© QuĂ©quĂ©.
  • They were then sent to Westminster School, with the understanding that their religion was not to be interfered with.
  • Yet, they not only were sent to this Protestant school, but they had a Protestant clergyman as tutor.In 1819, they went on to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
  • After this strange schooling for a future cardinal, Charles went to Rome when he was twenty and entered the Academia Ecclesiastica, where ecclesiastics intending to be candidates for public offices receive a special training.
  • An essay of his attracted the attention of the Secretary of State, della Somaglia, and Pope Leo XII made him a chamberlain and attachĂ© to the Paris Nunciature, where he had the best opportunity to become acquainted with diplomacy. Pope Pius VIII recalled him and named him vice-legate, granting him choice of any of the four legations over which cardinals presided.
  • He chose Bologna as affording most opportunity for improvement.
  • He left there at the close of Pius VIII's brief pontificate, and went to England, in 1829, to marry his sister to Sir Richard Throckmorton.
  • Pope Gregory XVI made him assistant judge in the Civil Court of Rome.
  • In 1837 he was made Auditor to the Apostolic Chamber, the highest Roman dignity after the cardinalate.
  • Probably this was the first time it was even offered to a foreigner.
  • Acton declined it, but was commanded to retain it.
  • He was proclaimed Cardinal-Priest, with the title of Santa Maria della Pace, in 1842; having been created nearly three years previously.
  • His strength, never very great, began to decline, and a severe attack of ague made him seek rest and recuperation, first at Palermo and then at Naples, but without avail, for he died in the latter city.
  • His sterling worth was little known through his modesty and humility.
  • In his youth his musical talent and genial wit supplied much innocent gaiety, but the pressure of serious responsibilities and the adoption of a spiritual life somewhat subdued its exercise. His judgment and legal ability were such that advocates of the first rank said that were they to know his view of a case they could tell how it would be decided.
  • When he communicated anything in writing, Pope Gregory used to say he never had occasion to read it more than once.
  • He was selected as interpreter in the interview which the Pope had with the Czar Nicholas I of Russia.
  • The Cardinal never said anything about this except that when he had interpreted the Pope's first sentence the Czar said: "It will be agreeable to me, if your Eminence will act as my interpreter, also." After the conference Cardinal Acton, by request of the Pope, wrote out a minute account of it; but he never permitted it to be seen.
  • The King of Naples urged him earnestly to become Archbishop of Naples, but he inexorably refused.
  • His charities were unbounded.
  • He once wrote from Naples that he actually tasted the distress which he sought to solace.
  • He may be said to have died in the 'wealth' of willing poverty.

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