Roman Catholic Cardinal. L'Aquila born Raffaele Monaco La Valletta was the third of five children of a wealthy couple. Sent to the Neapolitan Collegio del Salvatore at the age of eight years, the death of his father, a magistrate much in favour at the Court of Naples, made his mother, Maria Maddalena De Felici-Umani, move to her family's palace in her native Chieti, where Raffaele soon followed, pursuing his studies at the Real Collegio Teatino of the Scolopian Fathers. Entering seminary against the wishes of his family, befriending Pope Pius IX during his exile in Gaeta, where the young cleric went to pay him homage, the Pontiff ordained him priest in 1849 and on his return to Rome, had him move there, where he frequented in the years that followed the Collegio Romano, La Sapienza University and the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles. Named referendary prelate on December 14, 1854 and prelate adjunct of the Sacred Congregation of the Tridentine Council between 1857 and 1868, he went on to be appointed protonotary apostolic supernumerary on 1858, pro-assessor and later assessor of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition and canon of the chapter of the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica. The same Pius IX created him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 13, 1868 with the title of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on March 16, 1868 and electing him archbishop of the titular see of Eraclea on January 9, 1874, consecrated him three days later at the Hall of the Consistory in the Vatican. Appointed secretary of Petitions and Memorials on November 2, 1870, the Cardinal served as abbot commendatario of Ss. Benedict and Scholastica of Subiaco between March 20, 1873 and November of the following year, vicar of His Holiness for the city of Rome, Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals from February 27, 1880 until May 13, 1881 and grand penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary between February 12, 1884 and his death. Secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal and Roman Inquisition from February 15, 1884 until his death, opting for the order of bishops and the suburbicarian see of Albano on March 24, 1884, he was appointed archpriest of the patriarchal Lateran Basilica on March 4 of the following year. Administrator of the suburbicarian see of Frascati during the illness of Cardinal Edward Henry Howard, he was named prefect of the Sacred Ceremonial Congregation on March 1, 1889. Opting for the suburbicarian see of Ostia e Velletri on May 24, 1889 upon becoming dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, he was furthermore named grand prior commendatario of the Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem on June 18, 1894. A devotee of Our Lady of Pompeii, he became a close friend of Blessed Bartolo Longo, founder of the local sanctuary, becoming the first protector of the latter on March 28, 1890 and later its pontifical vicar on the sanctuary's donation to the Holy See on March 13, 1894. Passing away at Angerola in the province of Naples, where he had gone to recuperate his health, his body was transferred to Rome, where following the celebration of a solemn funeral mass at the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, was interred at the local Campo Verano Cemetery inside the Torre dei Cappuccini, having been the protector of the Order of the Franciscan Friars Minor Capuchins, along with the Polish and Capranica Colleges in Rome.