Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Bardano, Bonaventura Cerretti was one of eleven children born to Faustino and Maria Cerretti on their farm adjacent to the local cemetery. Entering seminary in Spoleto, he was sent to Rome to further his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian and Royal Universities, being ordained priest there on March 31, 1895 by Msgr. Tancredo Fausti. Staff member of the Secretariat of State between 1899 and 1904, he went on to serve as secretary to the apostolic delegation in Mexico between 1904 and 1906 and auditor of the apostolic delegation of the United States of America from 1906 till 1914. Elected archbishop of the titular see of Filippopoli di Tracia by Pope Pius X on April 15, 1914, he was transferred to the titular see of Corinto on the following May 10, receiving his episcopal consecration on July 19 that year in Rome from Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, Secretary of State. Named apostolic delegate in Australia and New Zealand by the then newly elected Pontiff Benedict XV October 5, 1914, he was named secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs on May 6, 1917. In special mission to the peace conference held in Paris between May and June 1919, he was named apostolic nuncio in France on May 20, 1921, where he was soon decorated with the grand cross of the Légion d'Honneur preceding his cardinalitial elevation in appreciation of his gift in mastering the intricacies of French politics. Pope Pius XI created him cardinal priest in the consistory of December 14, 1925 with the title of Santa Cecilia. Papal legate to the 29th International Eucharistic Congress held in Sydney, Australia, on June 14, 1928, Cerretti was named archpriest of the patriarchal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on July 16, 1930 and prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature on October 12 of the following year. Protector of various religious orders, opting for the order of cardinal bishops and the suburbicarian see of Velletri on March 13, 1933, he served as camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals as of March 13, 1933 until his death which took place at his Roman residence of via della Scrofa on the following May 8 due to pneumonia, complicated by septicemia and diabetes, assisted by his blood brother, Monsignor Cesare Cerretti, canon of the chapter of Saint Peter's Patriarchal Vatican Basilica, and Monsignor Alfredo Ottaviani, after receiving a personal blessing from the Pope delivered by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli in person. With his funeral held at the church of Sant'Ignazio, celebrated by Archbishop Tito Trocchi and with Cardinal Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte imparting the final absolution, the Cardinal was laid to rest at the Campo Verano Cemetery beside the vault of Cardinal Domenico Serafini in the chapel of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. At a later date, his remains were transferred to the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere where a funeral chapel presently housing his remains was inaugurated on May 28, 1936 with Cardinal Giulio Serafini pronouncing a discourse during the ceremony. The Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel adjacent to St. Patrick's College in Sydney, Australia, was named after him upon its opening in 1935.