Roman Catholic Cardinal. Gradoli born Domenico Ferrata studied at the Jesuit School of Orvieto, at the Diocesan Seminary of Montefiascone, and later in Rome, earning doctorates in theology and utroque iuris in both civil and canon laws. Ordained priest in September 1869, he lectured canon law at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum of S. Apollinare and dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Urban Athenaeum of the Propaganda Fide. Named privy chamberlain of His Holiness on June 16, 1879, he served as auditor of the apostolic nunciature in France between 1879 and 1882, being successively assigned as under secretary of the Sacred Congregations of Rites and of the Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in 1883. Domestic prelate of His Holiness, he served as extraordinary apostolic delegate in Switzerland to regulate the situation, unsettled since the war of 1859, of the diocese of Basel and of the canton of Tessin. Canon of the Patriarchal Liberian Basilica of Rome, he was elected president of the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles in 1884. Aged thirty eight, Monsignor Ferrata was elected archbishop of the titular see of Tessalonica and appointed apostolic nuncio in Belgium by Pope Leo XIII, receiving his episcopal consecration in Rome on April 19, 1885. Assigned as secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs on April 20, 1889, he was named apostolic nuncio in France on June 23, 1891. The named Pontiff created him cardinal priest in the consistory of June 22, 1896 with the title of Santa Prisca. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals between June 19, 1899 and April 19, 1900, Ferrata was successively assigned as prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Relics on November 20, 1899, prefect of the Sacred Congregation Rites on October 23, 1900, and prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars on November 27, 1902. Participating in the conclave of 1903 which elected Pius X to the Pontificate, he was named by the latter as prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Sacraments on October 26, 1908. Legate 'a latere' for the incoronation of the titular image of the Immaculate Conception at the collegiate of Cospicua, the Cardinal arrived in Malta on June 20, 1905, aboard the HMS Surprise with the coronation ceremony taking place on Sunday, June 25. Decorated with the grand cross of the Austrian Order of Sankt Stefan in 1910, he was appointed as archpriest of the Patriarchal Lateran Basilica on April 7, 1913, serving furthermore as secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office from January 2, 1914 until his death. Participator of the 1914 conclave which elected Pope Benedict XV to the see of Peter, on September 4, 1914, the Cardinal was appointed secretary of state of the Vatican City, dying however less than a month later, on October 10, of peritonitis, after an illness which lasted several weeks, because of which, it was considered imprudent to operate. Conscious to the last moment, his last words were "I am so tired. I go to join my Saviour". His body was exposed at the Patriarchal Lateran Basilica and later buried in a splendid and elegant mausoleum erected for him at the cemetery of his native Gradoli.