Roman Catholic Archbishop. The son of a prominent archaeologist, as an altar boy, Roman born Alfonso Carinci attended the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), when he was seven years of age; nearly one hundred years old, he participated as a Council Father in the the first two sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Frequenting the Almo Collegio Capranica, of which he was soon appointed economist soon shortly after his ordination to the priesthood that took place December 19, 1885, Carinci went on to serve as director general of the society 'Adoratio Quotidiana et Perpetua Sanctissimi Eucharistiae Sacramenti inter Sacerdotes Cleri Saecularis', and being named rector of the Almo Collegio Capranica and at the same time canon of the Liberian basilica, started forming part of the Collegio dei Maestri delle Cerimonie Pontificias of August 4, 1903. In such position he was able to participate in the conclave of 1914 that saw Cardinal Giacomo Della Chiesa elected to the Papacy as Benedict XV. Named domestic prelate of His Holiness on April 2, 1917, he served as consultor of the Sacred Congregations of Rites, of the Council and of Ceremonies. Appointed apostolic protonotary 'de numero participantium' on September 30, 1919 and secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites on April 3, 1930, he oversaw amongst others, the causes of Paola Frassinetti, Lucia Filippini, Gemma Galgani, Catherine Labouré, Giuseppe Cottolengo, John Fisher, Thomas More, Maria Domenica Mazzarello, Antonio Maria Gianelli, Ignazio da Laconi, Domenico Savio and of Pius X, to whom he had served as master of ceremonies. Elected archbishop of the titular see of Seleucia in Isauria on December 15, 1945, Carinci received his episcopal consecration on January 6 of the following year at the Roman church of San Crisogono from Cardinal Carlo Salotti. Dean of the College of Protonotaries, in such capacity he received the papal bull of Pope Pius XII proclaiming 1950 as a Holy Year of pilgrimage to Rome. According to 'The New York Times' of December 7, 1963, Pope Pius XII offered to elevate Carinci to the cardinalate in 1945, but he is reported to have declined on the grounds that he was too old, declaring that at his age, the expense for the cardinal's robes would be "superfluous". He was by then eighty four years of age, however he went on to live another seventeen. Named assistant at the Pontifical Throne, due to his advanced age, he received the assistance of a pro-secretary in the person of Msgr. Enrico Dante, who would eventually succeed him. Diagnosed with a recidive broncho pulmonary infection, he sought recovery at the Fatebenefratelli Hospital of Rome in July of 1959. Making a speedy recovery, on September 24, 1959, Pope John XXIII paid him a personal and unexpected visit at the hospital. Resigning from office at ninety years of age on January 5, 1960, on November 8, 1962, the day before his one hundredth birthday, during the council, he rose and thanking the participants for their good wishes, said he hoped each one of them would live as long as he had. The next day he said his 27,800th mass, then went home to mark the day with a quiet celebration, having a whipped cream birthday cake with two candles, a big one for his first century, a little one for the first year of his second. Succumbing to heart ailment at the Fatebenefratelli Hospital where he had celebrated his 101st birthday a month before, having underwent surgery on the previous November 17, he was laid to rest at the Campo Verano Cemetery, being transferred at a later date, to the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio on via Giulia, where inside which vault would also be later laid to rest, future Blessed Monsignor Luigi Novarese in 1984.