Cardinal protector

Since the thirteenth century it has been customary at Rome to confide to some particular Cardinal a special solicitude in the Roman Curia for the interests of a given religious order or institute, confraternity, church, college, city, nation etcetera. Such a person is known as a Cardinal Protector. He was its representative or orator when it sought a favor or a privilege, defended it when unjustly accused, and besought the aid of the Holy See when its rights, property or interests were violated or imperiled.

In ancient Rome a similar relationship had existed between the client (cliens) and his patronus (hence 'patron'); as Rome's power grew, a still closer analogy is visible between the Roman institution and the modern ecclesiastical protectorate. Nearly every provincial city had its patronus, or procurator, in imperial Rome, usually a Roman patrician or eques, and such persons were held in high esteem. Thus Cicero was patronus of Dyrrachium (later Durazzo, now Durrës) and of Capua, in which Campanian city a gilded statue was raised to him. In time the office became hereditary in certain families; Suetonius wrote, in his life of Tiberius, that the [imperial] Claudian family (gens Claudia) was from ancient times protector of Sicily and the Peloponnesus.

Every cardinal (except a Cardinal-Patriarch) is also, since the reign of John Paul II, called the Cardinal protector of the title (titular church s.s. for a Cardinal priest or Cardinal-deaconry for a Cardinal deacon) in or near Rome which he is assigned to, which gives him his title and benefits from his material support for upkeep or restoration, especially when he holds a rich see (usually as Archbishop).

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