ROSATI, Joseph, R. C. bishop, born in Sora, Italy, 30 January, 1789; died in Rome, 25 September, 1843. He became a member of the Lazarist order, and studied philosophy and theology in their seminary of Monte Citorio, Rome. He devoted himself with great zeal to the spiritual improvement of the prisoners in the city, and at the same time became noted as a pulpit orator. He gave his leisure to the study of the English language, and when Bishop Dubourg, of New Orleans, invited him to come to the United States, he accepted without hesitation, and landed in Baltimore on 23 July, 1816. After spending nearly a year in Louisville, Kentucky, he went to St. Louis on 17 October, 1817, designing to found a Lazarist college, but, after consultation with Bishop Dubourg, it was decided to establish the institution in the Barrens, Perry county, Missouri Here Father Rosati and his brother Lazarists erected a rude building with their own hands. It was ready to receive students in 1819, and he was appointed its first superior, at the same time filling the chairs of logic and theology. From this beginning was developed St. Mary's college and seminary at the Barrens, which afterward took high rank. He was made superior of the Lazarists in the United States in 1820, and in 1823 rebuilt his seminary on a larger scale. The same year he obtained a colony of Sisters of Loretto to take charge of an academy and a home for Indian girls. In March, 1824, he was made coadjutor of Bishop Dubourg, and in 1827 he was appointed bishop of St. Louis, which had been erected the previous year into an episcopal see. He was also for some time administrator of the diocese of New Orleans, and retained the post of superior of the Lazarist order up to 1830. He co-operated with the Jesuits in founding St. Louis university and the House of novices at Florissant, and introduced various sisterhoods. By his aid and patronage St. Louis hospital, said to have been the first of its kind in the United States, was established, and he also built a fine cathedral, which he consecrated in October, 1834. He attended the first four provincial councils of Baltimore, and exercised much influence in their deliberations. Bishop Rosati was very successful in making converts to his church. In 1840 he sailed for Europe, and on his arrival in Rome he was appointed apostolic delegate to Hayti, to settle a controversy that had arisen between that republic and the court of Rome, and also to bring about a reorganization of the Haytian church. On his return to Rome the pope expressed his approval of the diplomacy of Bishop Rosati, who prepared to sail for the United States from a French port, but he fell sick in Paris, and was advised by his physicians to go back to Rome, where he "died shortly after his arrival.