He was born on 21 July 1839, at Marsciano near Perugia. He was educated at the seminary of Perugia, ordained in 1862, and after receiving the doctorate at the Roman Sapienza university, was appointed in 1864 professor in the seminary of Perugia. In 1870 he became pastor at Marsciano and in 1872 went to Montecassino, where he remained two years.
Called to Rome by Leo XIII in 1880, Satolli was appointed professor of dogmatic theology in the Propaganda Fide. In 1882 he was appointed professor at the Roman Seminary. On 7 March 1882 at the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva Satolli delivered the annual encomium in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas to the Dominican College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas[1] Satolli was rector of the Greek College (1884). He was appointed president of the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici in 1886. In 1888 he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Naupactus. As professor he had an important share in the neo-Scholastic movement inaugurated by pope Leo XIII. His lectures, always fluent and often eloquent, aroused the enthusiasm of his students for the study of St. Thomas Aquinas, while his writings opened the way for an extended literature in Thomistic philosophy and theology.
Satolli came to the United States in 1889, was present at the centenary of the hierarchy celebrated in Baltimore and delivered an address at the inauguration of the Catholic University of America in November. On his second visit, he attended on 16 November 1892 a meeting of the archbishops held in New York City and formulated in fourteen propositions the solution of certain school problems which had been for some time under discussion. He then took up his residence at the Catholic University of America, where he gave a course of lectures on the philosophy of St. Thomas.
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