Archbishop of Italy
Archbishop Gian Franco Saba was born in Olbia on 20 September 1968. After entering the diocesan seminary of Tempo-Ampurias and continuing his studies in the Pontifical Umbrian Regional Seminary of Assisi, he attended the Theological Institute affiliated to the Pontifical Lateran University. He transferred to the Pontifical Sardinian Regional Seminary of Cagliari, and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sardinia. He alsl obtained a doctorate in theology and patristic sciences from the Pontifical Patristic Institute “Augustinianum” in Rome. He attended the course in “Communication systems in international relations” at the Faculty of Letters of the University for Foreigners of Perugia. He was ordained a priest on 23 October 1993, and incardinated in the diocese of Tempio-Ampurias, Sardinia. He has held the following offices: vice rector and rector of the diocesan seminary, member of the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors, director of the diocesan youth council, and diocesan assistant for the young people of Catholic Action (1994-2000); director of the diocesan Institute of Religious Sciences (2001); director of the Istituto Euromediterraneo, associate lecturer in patristic theology at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sardinia (2004); rector of the Pontifical Sardinian Regional Seminary in Cagliari (2010-2015); and parish priest of San Antonio Abate in San Antonio di Gallura (2015-2017). On 27 June 2017 he was appointed metropolitan archbishop of Sassari, receiving episcopal consecration the following 13 September.