Alcide Marina


Alcide Giuseppe Marina, C.M. was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked as an educator and leader of the Vincentians until 1936 and then in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.

Biography

Alcide Marina was born in Santimento, a village near Piacenza, Italy, on 24 March 1887. He studied at the local seminary and then at Collegio Alberoni. He took his first vows as a Vincentian on 25 December 1906 and then studied at the order's Montecitorio seminary in Rome. Following an interruption of his studies for military service, he was ordained a priest on 18 December 1909. He then taught at the Alberoni and at San Jacopo in Florence. He returned to the military from 1915 to 1919 as a chaplain during World War I.
After the war he returned to teaching and began his fifteen years in charge of the order’s principal publication, the Annals of the Missions, moving its operations to Rome where he headed the Pontifical Liturgical Academy and as editor transformed Ephemerides Liturgicae, an international journal associated with the Congregation for Rites. From 1921 to 1932 he headed Collegio Alberoni as well. There he initiated a revival of studies devoted to Thomas Aquinas and the translation into Italian of the work of Vincent de Paul, as well as the expansion of its science program and art gallery. As Visitor of the Missions he led the Roman province of the order from 1932 to 1936.
On 7 March 1936, Pope Pius XI named him a titular archbishop and Apostolic Delegate to Iran. He received his episcopal consecration on 24 May 1936 by Secretary of State Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli.
On 18 April 1945, Pope Pius reassigned him to be Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and again on 22 March to be Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon. He was also Apostolic Administrator of Constantinople from 1945 to 18 May 1947.
He died in Rome on 17 September 1950 at the age of 63.
A street in Piacenza is named for him, Via Alcide Marina.