Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born in the Spanish Embassy in London where his father was serving as secretary to the delegation, Rafael María José Pedro Francisco Borja Domingo Gerardo de la Santíssima Trinidad Merry del Val y Zulueta was the second of four children born to an old Basque family ennobled as counts in the nineteenth century. Receiving his first studies at Bayliss House in Slough, followed by the Jesuit Notre Dame de Namur school and the College Saint-Michele in Brussels, Belgium, and the College of St. Cuthbert, Ushaw, Durham, he moved to Rome, entering the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles of Rome and the Pontifical Gregorian University from where he obtained doctorates in philosophy and theology and a licentiate in canon law, both in 1891. Named privy chamberlain supernumerary with the title of monsignor on June 8, 1887 when he was only twenty one years of age, Merry del Val was ordained priest in December 1888 in Rome. Successively he was soon appointed secretary to Archbishop Luigi Galimberti in the nunciatures of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Named privy chamberlain 'de numero participantium' in December 1891, he was appointed secretary of the Pontifical Commission to study the validity of Anglican ordinations in 1896 and participated in the redaction of the Bull "Apostolicæ Curæ". Acting as apostolic delegate of the apostolic delegation of Canada between March 10, 1897 until July 1898, in order to solve the question of the schools of Manitoba, he acted as consultor of the Sacred Congregation of the Index and served as president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy between October 21, 1899 and 1903. Appointed archbishop of the titular see of Nicaea, he received his episcopal consecration in the church of Santa Maria in via Monserrato on May 6, 1900, from Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro. Secretary of the 1903 conclave which elected Giuseppe Sarto to the see of Saint Peter, he served as pro-secretary of state between August 4, 1903 until November 12, 1903, when he was appointed secretary of state, prefect of the sacred shrine of Loreto and prefect of the Apostolic Palace, being created on November 9, cardinal by the now Pope Pius X with the title of Santa Prassede. Appointed president of the Pontifical Commission for the Administration of Wealth of Holy See in 1904, the Cardinal was decorated with the grand cross of the Austrian Order of Sankt Stefan in 1907. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals between November 1911 and December 1912, he was furthermore named archpriest of the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica and prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Fabric of Saint Peter's Basilica. Named secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in October 1914 following the election of Benedict XV as Pius's successor, he was appointed president of the Academy of the Catholic Religion on December 7, 1915. Re-confirmed in the position of secretary of the Holy Office upon the election of Pope Pius XI in 1922, he remained in this position for the rest of his life. Authoring the "Litany of Humility", which continues to be a popularly featured in several prayer books, Merry del Val passed unexpectedly away after suffering an appendicitis attack. His body rests in the grottoes of St. Peter's Basilica in a marble sarcophagus donated by the Spanish government which was blessed by Cardinal Eugenio Maria Pacelli, secretary of state and future Pope Pius in 1931. The cause of his beatification was introduced on February 26, 1953.