Cardinal Secretary of State

The **Secretary of State of His Holiness** (), commonly known as the **Cardinal Secretary of State**, is in charge over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia. The Secretariat of State is seen as the prime minister of the Holy See.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin has served as secretary of state since 2013, nominated by Francis and temporarily confirmed also by Leo XIV in May 2025.

### Secretaries of State between 1551 and 1644

- Girolamo Dandini (1551–1555)
- Carlo Borromeo (1560–1565)
- Tolomeo Gallio (1565–1566)
- Girolamo Rusticucci (1566–1572)
- Tolomeo Gallio (again) (1572–1585)
- Decio Azzolini (seniore) (1585–1587)
- Alessandro Peretti di Montalto (Cardinal-Nephew) (1587–1590)
- Paolo Emilio Sfondrati (Cardinal-Nephew) (1591)
- Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti de Nuce (Cardinal-Nephew) (1591)
- Pierbenedetto Peretti (1592–1593)
- Pietro Aldobrandini (Cardinal-Nephew) and Cinzio Passeri Aldobrandini (Cardinal-Nephew) (1593–1605)
- Roberto Ubaldini (1605)
- Erminio Valenti (1605)
- Lanfranco Margotti (1605–1611)
- Porifrio Feliciani (1611–1621)
- Giovanni Battista Agucchi (1621–1623)
- Lorenzo Magalotti (1623–1628)
- Lorenzo Azzolini (1628–1632)
- Pietro Benessa (1632–1634)
- Francesco Adriano Ceva (1634–1643)
- Giovanni Battista Spada (1643–1644)

### Cardinal Secretaries of State since 1644

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col" style="border-right:none;"||scope="col" style="border-left:none;"|Name|scope="col" style="width:20%;"|From|scope="col" style="width:20%;"|Until|scope="col" style="width:20%;"|First appointer|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Giovanni Giacomo Panciroli|15 September 1644|3 September 1651 †|rowspan=2|Innocent X|||||||
||Fabio Chigi|3 December 1652|7 January 1655|||||||||
||Giulio Rospigliosi|7 April 1655|22 May 1667|Alexander VII||||||||
||Decio Azzolino|25 June 1667|9 December 1669|Clement IX||||||||
||Federico Borromeo|11 May 1670|18 February 1673 †|rowspan=2|Clement X|||||||
||Francesco Nerli|1 August 1673|22 July 1676|||||||||
||Alderano Cybo-Malaspina|23 September 1676|12 August 1689|Innocent XI||||||||
||Giambattista Rubini|6 October 1689|1 February 1691|Alexander VIII||||||||
||Fabrizio Spada|14 July 1691|27 September 1700|Innocent XII||||||||
||Fabrizio Paolucci|3 December 1700|19 March 1721|Clement XI||||||||
||Giorgio Spinola|10 May 1721|7 March 1724|Innocent XIII||||||||
||Fabrizio Paolucci|6 June 1724|12 June 1726 †|rowspan=2|Benedict XIII|||||||
||Niccolò Maria Lercari|21 June 1726|21 February 1730|||||||||
||Antonio Banchieri|15 July 1730|16 September 1733 †|rowspan=2|Clement XII|||||||
||Giuseppe Firrao the Elder|4 October 1733|6 February 1740|||||||||
||Silvio Valenti Gonzaga|20 August 1740|28 August 1756 †|rowspan=2|Benedict XIV|||||||
||Alberico Archinto|20 September 1756|30 September 1758 †|||||||||
||Ludovico Maria Torriggiani|8 October 1758|2 February 1769|Clement XIII||||||||
||Lazzaro Opizio Pallavicini|19 May 1769|23 February 1785 †|Clement XIV||||||||
||Ignazio Gaetano Boncompagni Ludovisi|29 June 1785|30 September 1789|rowspan=4|Pius VI|||||||
||Francesco Saverio de Zelada|14 October 1789|10 February 1796|||||||||
||Ignazio Busca|9 August 1796|18 March 1797|||||||||
||Giuseppe Maria Doria Pamphilj|18 March 1797|29 August 1799|||||||||
||Ercole Consalvi|11 August 1800|17 June 1806|rowspan=4|Pius VII|||||||
||Filippo Casoni|17 June 1806|2 February 1808|||||||||
||Giulio Gabrielli the Younger|26 March 1808|26 July 1814|||||||||
||Ercole Consalvi|26 July 1814|20 August 1823|||||||||
||Giulio Maria della Somaglia|28 September 1823|17 January 1828|rowspan=2|Leo XII|||||||
||Tommaso Bernetti|17 January 1828|10 February 1829|||||||||
||Giuseppe Albani|31 March 1829|30 November 1830|Pius VIII||||||||
||Tommaso Bernetti|21 February 1831|12 January 1836|rowspan=2|Gregory XVI|||||||
||Luigi Lambruschini|12 January 1836|1 June 1846|||||||||
||Tommaso Pasquale Gizzi|8 August 1846|5 July 1847|rowspan=8|Pius IX|||||||
||Gabriele Ferretti|17 July 1847|1 February 1848|||||||||
||Giuseppe Bofondi|1 February 1848|10 March 1848|||||||||
||Giacomo Antonelli|10 March 1848|4 May 1848|||||||||
||Antonio Francesco Orioli|4 May 1848|2 June 1848|||||||||
||Giovanni Soglia Ceroni|4 June 1848|29 November 1848|||||||||
||Giacomo Antonelli|29 November 1848|6 November 1876 †|||||||||
||Giovanni Simeoni|18 December 1876|5 March 1878|||||||||
||Alessandro Franchi|5 March 1878|31 July 1878 †|rowspan=4|Leo XIII|||||||
||Lorenzo Nina|9 August 1878|16 December 1880|||||||||
||Luigi Jacobini|16 December 1880|28 February 1887 †|||||||||
||Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro|2 July 1887|20 July 1903|||||||||
||Rafael Merry del Val|12 November 1903|20 August 1914|Pius X||||||||
||Domenico Ferrata|4 September 1914|10 October 1914 †|rowspan=2|Benedict XV|||||||
||Pietro Gasparri|13 October 1914|7 February 1930|||||||||
||Eugenio Pacelli|9 February 1930|10 February 1939|Pius XI||||||||
||Luigi Maglione|10 March 1939|22 August 1944 †|Pius XII||||||||
|colspan=6|<small>_Office vacant_</small>|||||||||||
||Domenico Tardini|15 December 1958|30 July 1961 †|rowspan=2|John XXIII|||||||
||Amleto Giovanni Cicognani|12 August 1961|30 April 1969|||||||||
||Jean-Marie Villot|2 May 1969|9 March 1979 †|Paul VI||||||||
||Agostino Casaroli|1 July 1979|1 December 1990|rowspan=2|John Paul II|||||||
||Angelo Sodano|29 June 1991|15 September 2006|||||||||
||Tarcisio Bertone|15 September 2006|15 October 2013|Benedict XVI||||||||
||Pietro Parolin|15 October 2013|_Incumbent_|Francis||||||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: Secretary of State
- **body**: His Holiness
- **insignia**: Coat of arms of Vatican City (2001–2023).svg
- **insigniacaption**: Coat of arms of the Holy See
- **image**: File:Cardinal Parolin (48831176406) (cropped).jpg
- **incumbent**: Pietro Parolin
- **incumbentsince**: 15 October 2013
- **department**: Secretariat of State (Holy See), Secretariat of State
- **style**: His Eminence
- **type**: Head of government
- **member of**: Roman Curia
Council of Cardinal Advisers, Council of Cardinals
- **reports to**: Pope, The Pope
- **appointer**: The Pope
- **termlength**: Appointment of a new Pope
- **formation**: 20 November 1551
- **first**: Girolamo Dandini (cardinal), Girolamo Dandini
- **unofficial names**: Cardinal Secretary of State