Raffaele Carlo Rossi was born in Pisa on October 28, 1876.
Soon his parents separated, leaving in him a deep nostalgia that was reflected throughout his life. However, he maintained contact with both parents and managed to reconcile them on the eve of their death. He attended high school in Pisa, where he met the Catholic scholar Giuseppe Toniolo.
Although hindered by his father, in 1898 he entered the Discalced Carmelite friars and professed his religious vows in December 1899. In 1901 he was ordained a priest.
He was appointed Consultor of the then «Holy Office» as Coadjutor and successor of the Carmelite bishop Msgr. Steiaert. This was followed by the appointment of Visitator to some dioceses and seminaries. On 25th of May 1920, he was consecrated bishop. It was Pope Benedict XV who personally chose him as bishop of Volterra. He did everything to divert the appointment by resorting to the Pontiff himself, citing as a difficulty his condition as a religious unprepared for such a lofty task. But his reasons were worthless, in the face of the resolute will of the Pope. In the Tuscan city, Rossi's activity was directed primarily to the care of the seminary and the new priests, convinced, as he was, of the need for priests prepared for the new century.
Transferred to Rome as Assessor of the Consistorial, as today's Congregation of Bishops was then called, and appointed titular Archbishop of Thessalonica, he was given other delicate positions: Consultor of studies to the seminaries, of the Secretariat of State, of the Religious, of the Rites. Pope Pius XI, after the successful conclusion of the concordat between the Holy See and Italy, wanted to reward him, in 1930, with the conferral of the colours of a Cardinal.
After a few months he was appointed Secretary of the Consistorial. Despite his curia assignments, Rossi tried as much as possible to preserve the ascetic life proper to the Discalced Carmelites. The offices of Popes Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII were many and numerous, in particular the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In these years he also devoted himself to the care of emigrants. This interest was born, in particular, when he was appointed Counsellor of the Consistorial and had the task of following the religious congregation of the Scalabrinians, founded by Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini. This was born within the Church for the formation of missionaries responsible for the spiritual assistance of emigrants in different parts of the world. The newly formed Scalabrinian congregation suffered a certain crisis and Rossi worked to try to relaunch it.
His intervention was so effective, that he was considered almost a second founder of the congregation. This socio-charitable activity developed during the war period, when the pontifical bodies of the POA and ONARMO had to deal with assistance to the displaced. This intense charitable activity seemed to reconcile, in the eyes of most, this ascetic man of the curia with the teaching of his teacher, the sociologist Giuseppe Toniolo.
In August 1948, due to the worsening of some medical problems, he went to Crespano del Grappa to the Scalabrinian religious, hoping for a general recovery assisted by the climate and contact with nature.
He died on the night of 16 and 17 September 1948 at the age of 71.
Currently, in the process for his beatification and canonization, his «life, virtue and reputation for holiness» is being studied in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
