Xavier de Mérode has been described by his detractors as cunning, profiteering, sectarian to the point of violence. A rough, impetuous character, always ready to respond. From a noble Belgian family, he lived his ministry in the Rome of Pius IX going through the whole parabola from the Roman Republic (1849) to the Law of Guarantees (1871). It was not an easy period, which found him a staunch defender of the Church’s temporal power. During his service as an alms-giver, he managed to save many Christian catacombs and cemeteries from destruction by the encroaching regulatory plans of the nascent Kingdom of Italy. Accused of being an unscrupulous ‘palazzinaro’, in reality he skilfully laid the foundations for much of the urbanisation of Rome and the Pontine area, carrying out works that are still visible today. This book brings to light a forgotten character, linked to the Pope and the Church, to Rome and its people, to which he devoted himself entirely with intelligence and heart, distinguishing himself among the great protagonists of his time.