Rafael Merry del Val [SEP] position held
Rafael Merry del Val
Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val y Zulueta, OL (10 October 1865 – 26 February 1930) was a Spanish Roman Catholic cardinal.
Before becoming a cardinal, he served as the secretary of the papal conclave of 1903 that elected Saint Pius X, who is said to have accepted his election through Merry del Val's encouragement. Pius X later appointed him as the
Cardinal Secretary of State. Merry del Val's writings and example prompted greater popularity for the Litany of Humility, which was for
In 1908, Pacelli served as a Vatican representative on the International Eucharistic Congress, accompanying Rafael Merry del Val to London, where he met Winston Churchill. In 1911, he represented the Holy See at the coronation of King George V.
Pacelli became the under-secretary in 1911, adjunct-secretary in 1912 (a position he received under Pope Pius X and retained under Pope Benedict XV), and secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in February 1914. On 24 June 1914, just four days before Archduke Franz