Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born in the then Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte was the son of Angelo Granito, 4th Marquis of Castellabate, and Paolina Francesca Pignatelli e Aymerich, 7th Princess of Belmonte and 9th Duchess of Acerenza. Receiving his education at the local Mondragone College, he adscribed to the Neapolitan clergy on March 2, 1878 and was ordained priest on June 7, 1879. Appointed secretary to the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples, Guglielmo Sanfelice D'Acquavella that same year, he was named domestic prelate of His Holiness on April 4, 1884. Editor of "La Libertà Cattolica" of Naples from 1886 until 1891, he was appointed canon and archdiocesan official of the archdiocese of Naples in 1891 and staff member of the Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs the following year. In 1893, he was named ablegato to deliver the red biretta to two new French Cardinals, Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot and Joseph-Chrétien-Ernest Bourret. Assigned as attaché in the French nunciature that same year, he served as member of the Papal mission to the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1896 and to the 60th jubilee of Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1897. Auditor of the named Cardinal Sanfelice D'Acquavilla and pro-secretary of the archiepiscopal visitations, he acted as counsellor of the nunciature in France from 1897 until 1899, when he was named its chargé d'affaires. Elected archbishop of the titular see of Edessa in Osrhoëne by Pope Leo XIII, he received his episcopal consecration at the chapel of the Sisters of Sant'Anna in via Merulana, Rome, from Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, Secretary of State, on November 26, 1899. Named apostolic nuncio in Belgium on the following December 5, he acted as special Papal envoy to the funeral of Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1901 and later to the coronation of King George V of Great Britain in June 1911. Appointed nuncio in Austria-Hungary, with faculties of legate 'a latere' on January 15, 1904, he resigned his post on January 6, 1911. In the consistory of November 27 of that year, Pope Pius X elevated him to the Sacred College of Cardinals, receiving the title of Santa Maria degli Angeli three days later. Decorated with the grand cross of the Austrian Order of Sankt Stefan in 1911, the Cardinal was named Papal legate to the International Eucharistic Congress of Lourdes, France, on July 12, 1914. Opting for the order of cardinal bishops and the suburbicarian see of Albano on December 6, 1915, he acted as Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals between December 4, 1916 and March 10, 1919. Papal legate to the celebrations in honor of Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc in Orléans, France, on May 8, 1921, and to the National Eucharistic Congress of Palermo, Sicily, on August 6, 1924, he was named vice-dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals on February 25, 1929. Opting for the suburbicarian see of Ostia, proper of the Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals while retaining the suburbicarian see of Albano on July 9, 1930, he was appointed prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Ceremonies five days later. Named legate 'a latere' to the opening and closing of the Holy Door of the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le mura in March 1934, he served as grand prior of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Rome from 1937 until his death due to bladder ailment complicated by old age, which occurred in his simply furnished apartment in the historic Vatican house of Santa Marta. At his death, he was the oldest member of the Sacred College of Cardinals and the last surviving Cardinal of Pope Saint Pius X. A lifelong protector of numerous Religious Orders and Congregations, including the Discalced Augustinians, the Ordine dei Minimi, the Hermits of St. Augustine and the Franciscan Capuchin Friars, as a sign of appreciation the latter had him buried in their tomb in the tower reserved for them at the Campo Verano Cemetery of Rome.