Filippo Camassei was born in
Rome, and studied at the
Pontifical Roman Seminary, from where he obtained his
doctorates in theology and
in canon and civil law. He was
ordained to the
priesthood on 12 April 1872, and then did
pastoral work in Rome. In 1876, Camassei became
private secretary to Cardinal
Raffaele Monaco La Valletta, the
Vicar-General of Rome. He was later made
Rector of the
Pontifical Pius Seminary in 1874, and of the
Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum De Propaganda Fide on 10 December 1889. In June 1895, he traveled to
Maynooth in County Kildare, Ireland to represent
Pope Leo XIII at the centennial celebrations of
St Patrick's Pontifical University. He was raised to the rank of
Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on 13 April 1897. On 18 March 1904, Camassei was appointed
Archbishop of Naxos by
Pope Pius X. He received his
episcopal consecration on the following 10 April from Cardinal
Girolamo Maria Gotti, with Archbishops
Pietro Gasparri and
Edmund Stonor serving as
co-consecrators, in the chapel of the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum
De Propaganda Fide. Camassei was promoted to
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on 6 December 1906. In making his solemn entry into Jerusalem on 19 March 1907, he declined to wear the ornately decorated ceremonial clothes. During World War I, he was exiled to
Nazareth by the
Turks on 19 November 1917. In Nazareth, he was hosted by the
Franciscan friars and continued to supervise the
parishes in northern
Palestine. Camassei appointed Monsignor François Vilinger as his vicar in order to supervise the rest of the parishes in Palestine and Jordan. The Patriarch returned to
Jerusalem after the
Anglo-French victory on 3 November 1918. Shortly afterwards, in May 1919, he went to Rome for a period of rest and to visit the
Vatican.
Pope Benedict XV there created him
cardinal priest of
Santa Maria in Aracoeli in the
consistory of 15 December. Camassei died in Rome, one year later at age 73. He is buried in the
sepulchre of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in the
Campo Verano cemetery. ==References==