Girolamo Maria Gotti

Girolamo Maria Gotti, O.C.D. (born Giovanni Antonio Benedetto Gotti March 29, 1834, Genoa, Italy; died March 19, 1916, Rome, Italy), sometimes erroneously called Giuseppe Gotti, was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Gotti was papabile at the 1903 papal conclave, when he was generally believed to be the most likely opponent of Pope Leo XIII's Secretary of State Mariano Rampolla. Although Gotti was Rampolla's main challenger in the first four ballots, eventually after seven ballots Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto was elected as Pope Pius X. It is noteworthy that there has never been a Carmelite Pope: indeed Gotti is the only Carmelite cardinal to have been a serious candidate for the papacy since the order was founded around eight centuries ago.

Gotti entered the Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1850 and, after his profession as a religious a year later, completed his studies for the priesthood by 1856. In the following decades Gotti was a lector of philosophy and theology in the local monastery. So able and versatile was he that he also taught mathematics at the local naval academy during this period. He was already regarded as a tireless student and scholar, as well as an ascetic who, despite the influence he was having, would always sleep on the floor.



At the First Vatican Council in 1870 Gotti was advisor to the superior-general of his order and by 1881 he had become superior general himself (he was to retain this position until 1897). He became a counsellor to several curial...
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