Francesco Saverio de Zelada

Who was Francesco Saverio de Zelada?

Francesco Saverio [de] Zelada was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, born of a Spanish family, who served in the Papal Curia and in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.

He was educated at the University of La Sapienza, gaining degrees utroque iure, in both canon and civil law. He was ordained October 23, 1740. He was appointed titular Archbishop of Petra, December 23, 1766, and cardinal priest in the consistory of April 19, 1773. Appointed by means of a papal brief of Pope Clement XIV, he was the principal negotiator for the Holy See and composer of the brief Dominus ac Redemptor of June 8, 1773, that suppressed the Society of Jesus. On October 2, the Diario di Roma reported he had been given a Meissen group representing the death of St. Francis Xavier, confiscated from the Jesuits.

As Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, his career culminated in his appointment by Pope Pius VI as Cardinal Secretary of State, 1789–1796, in which post he was entrusted with difficult negotiations with the French Revolutionary state, which included his peaceful conclusion of peace in 1793. With the French occupation of Rome, Cardinal Zelada retired to Tuscany. Following Pius' death, Zelada participated in the Papal conclave, 1800 that elected Pope Pius VII.