Background
He was believed to have been considered an intelligent as well as pious child, something which was felt he learned from his mother.
He was believed to have been considered an intelligent as well as pious child, something which was felt he learned from his mother.
At the age of nine he attended Salford Catholic Grammar School and became fluent in French, German, Italian and Spanish. Whilst there he came under the influence of those two masters, Canon Augustus De Clerc and Bruno de Splenter. "Wax to receive, marble to retain,".
Louis went on to study at Street Cuthbert"s College, Ushaw where he won a gold medal for classics as well earning an Master of Arts degree externally from University of London in 1873.
In 1884 he began specialist theology studies at the University of Louvain, in Belgium, where he also specialised in Eastern languages, an interest first acquired - so he said - through a chance encounter with a book in the Manchester Free Library.
He was an avid diary keeper, often writing in several languages on the one page, and frequently using the prayer (in Latin) "O God be merciful to me a sinner".
Born of Italian parents at 2 Clarence Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, 14 November 1852. Louis was ordained to the priesthood on the 10 September 1876 by the then Herbert Vaughan. He was seconded to the teaching staff of Street Bede"s College, Manchester although in 1884 he returned once more to the University of Louvain and gained a doctorate in Oriental literature.
Upon completion of his studies, he returned to Street Bede"s and in 1891 he was appointed rector.
From 1898 he lectured five times each Lent term at Louvain, Sanskrit, Zend and Pehievi becoming his speciality. He was lecturer in Iranian languages in the University of Manchester, and was offered a position as the Katrak lecturer in Iranian studies at Oxford University but although he accepted he was unable to give the lecture due to illness.
On 28 August 1903 Louis was appointed of Salford but wrote to Rome begging to decline. He was consecrated in Street John"s Cathedral, on 21 September 1903 by Archbishop-elect Francis Bourne, with s Thomas Whiteside and Samuel Webster Allen as co-consecrators.
The poor Catholics of Manchester and Salford took great pride in the appointment, and when charged that nobody with any intelligence could possibly be a Catholic, would reply "Well just look at our ".
Casartelli was one of the first bishops in England to attempt concerted Catholic Action. He produced a monthly journal The Federationist and never failed to make a contribution on contemporary issues. Casartelli died at s House, Chapel Street, Salford on 18 January 1925, and is buried in Street Joseph"s Cemetery, Moston, Manchester.
His appeal was rejected and he wrote to Abbot Francis Aidan Gasquet Order of St. Benedict "if the wish did not sound rather an impiety one could almost desire that Cardinal Gotti might have held me suspect of Liberalism and other dreadful things" (1 September 1903).
On 18 December 1918 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society which he declares in his diary of the day as "a most astonishing and unexpected honour.".