Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Govone, Giacomo Violardo came from a modest family of small proprietors. Entering seminary in Alba, he furthered his studies at the theological faculty of Turin, earning a licentiate in theology, the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare in Rome, earning a doctorate in utroque iure in both canon and civil law and later at the Catholic University of Milan, earning a doctorate in jurisprudence. Ordained priest in Rome on June 29, 1923, Violardo lectured moral theology and canon law at the Pontifical Regional Seminary Pio XI in Fano between 1928 and 1935. Named privy chamberlain of His Holiness on December 14, 1935 and domestic prelate of His Holiness on April 23, 1939, he went to serve as professor of canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University, a position which he held from 1935 until 1964, eventually becoming its dean of the faculty of canon law. Auditor of the apostolic nunciature in France, promoter of justice and later undersecretary at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature, prelate and undersecretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, he was ultimately named secretary of the Cardinalitial Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law and Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of Sacraments on January 26, 1965. Elected archbishop of the titular see of Satafi on February 19, 1966, he received his episcopal consecration on the following March 19, inside the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica from Pope Paul VI. The latter created him cardinal deacon in the consistory of April 28, 1969 with the deaconry of Sant'Eustachio. Hospitalized in a Roman clinic in his last weeks, the discovery of his body underneath a staircase of the Palace of the Holy Office in the Vatican shortly after his discharge, was the subject of speculations in a number of publications related to the abrupt death of Pope John Paul I. Transferred to the his native Govone, Violardo was laid to rest in the local parish church.