Gabriele Maria Allegra

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Gabriele Maria Allegra OFM (born December 26, 1907 in San Giovanni la Punta , † January 26, 1976 in Hong Kong ) was a member of the Franciscan order , priest and biblical scholar . He translated the entire Bible into Chinese . He has been venerated as a blessed in the Roman Catholic Church since 2012 , and his liturgical memorial is celebrated on January 26th.

biography

Allegra was born the first of nine children of a religious farming family in San Giovanni La Punta at the foot of Mount Etna and was baptized Giovanni. At the age of eleven he attended the Collegium Seraphicum , the grammar school with boarding school of the Franciscans in the nearby episcopal city of Acireale . On October 13, 1923, he entered the Franciscan order and received the religious name Gabriele Maria. He completed his novitiate in Bronte . After graduating from high school, he began studying at the Pontifical College of S. Antonio ( Collegium Sancti Antonii Patavini in Urbe ) in Rome . On the occasion of the commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the death of the first Bishop of Beijing, the Franciscan Giovanni da Montecorvino (1247 - 1328), he made the decision to undertake his life project: to go to China as a missionary and translate the Bible into Chinese. He made his solemn profession on July 25, 1929, was ordained a priest on July 20, 1930, and came to China for the first time a year later. After only six months, he had mastered the language so well that he was able to participate in pastoral care in the Franciscan parish in Heng Yang ( Hunan Province ). In 1935 he began translating the Bible , and by 1939 he had translated the first 10 books. He also incorporated the findings of modern, especially German, exegesis into his work. In order to better acquire the spirit and culture of China, he surrounded himself with a circle of Chinese intellectuals and writers, with whom he practiced the translation of Chinese classics and immersed himself in Chinese philosophy .

Sensitive negotiations

He spent the period from May 1939 to April 1941 in his home country for health reasons; He also used his stay to deepen his studies. On May 27, 1940, he received the degree of Lector Generalis (license to teach all subjects of theology) from his Roman university , and in early 1941 he returned to China via Portugal, the United States and Japan, where he was now in Beijing could dedicate himself to his work as a translator. Between 1942 and 1945, on behalf of the Apostolic Delegate for China, Archbishop Mario Zanin (1890-1958), he held several conversations with the renowned palaeontologist and Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on borderline issues between science and theology. Teilhard had been in China for more than twenty years for his scientific research and had just completed his main work “Man in the Cosmos”, for which he had not received a publication permit from his order. Zanin wanted to form a well-founded judgment about it through Father Allegra. In his conversations with Teilhard, which he also documented in a book, Father Allegra relied on the Franciscan theologian Johannes Duns Scotus (1265-1308), whose work he knew well. During the last weeks of the war, General Hidaka, the commander of the Japanese occupation in China, asked on behalf of Japanese Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro to seek help from the Pope to bring about an honorable peace between Japan and America. This happened with the knowledge of the American side. Together with Mario Zanin, he sent a message to this effect to the Vatican. However, as Hidaka indicated, the attempt failed due to disagreement on the Japanese side.

The Bible translation appears

In May 1945 he finished the complete translation of the Old Testament. In 1947, after years of preparation, he founded the Chinese Bible Institute, which was attached to the Catholic University of Beijing . After the Communist Party came to power, it was impossible to continue working in Beijing , and in 1948 P. Allegra moved with the institute to Hong Kong. On September 30, 1949 he received in a private audience with Pope Pius XII . his personal commitment to the purchase of a suitable building, where he continued to work on the translation in teamwork with several mainly Chinese Franciscans. He spent the weekends and holidays with the lepers in Macau .

In 1954 a new, now annotated translation of the Old Testament was published in eight volumes. On November 18, 1955, he received an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical College of S. Antonio in Rome. On November 3, 1960 he was by Pope John XXIII . receive. At Christmas 1968 the edition of the translation appeared in one volume, the "Christmas Bible". It was the first complete Catholic translation of the Bible to receive praise from many quarters for its linguistic quality. Parallel to his Bible study, he founded and briefly headed an institute for Christian social teaching in Singapore (1961 - 1963). He had received the encouragement for this during his visit to Rome in 1955 from the founding father of the Italian Christian Democrats, Don Luigi Sturzo ( 1871-1959 ), who was a Sicilian . A final, long-cherished dream was the realization of a Chinese Bible Lexicon , for which he had extensive articles written on the dialogue topics Confucianism , Buddhism , Daoism and the Bible.

Maria Valtorta

The positive opinion of Father Allegra on the work of Maria Valtorta (1897 - 1961), regarded as a seer and mystic , who had recorded her visions on the life of Jesus in several volumes, caused a sensation . He, who had been made aware of them by his brother Fr. Fortunato Margiotto, was impressed by the vivid description of the country and people of the time of Jesus, the conversations Jesus had with his mother and the apostles. He placed them alongside the visions of Anna Katharina Emmerick (1774 - 1824) and Maria von Ágreda (1602 - 1665). As a private revelation , the volumes have no binding meaning for the faith, but in Allegra's opinion they help the believers to grow in piety and love for Jesus. Intensive lectures and retreats in Asia and Europe consumed his strength, and in April 1975 he saw the appearance of his Bible dictionary. He died on January 26, 1976 in Hong Kong.

beatification

In 1984 the diocesan process for his beatification was opened in Hong Kong . On May 17, 1986, his remains were transferred to a chapel in the Franciscan Church of San Biagio in Acireale. On 15 December 1994, Pope John Paul II. The heroic virtues of Father Allegra, on 22 April 2003 recognition was one of his intercession attributed miracle. On September 29, 2012 in Acireale with the consent of Pope Benedict XVI. celebrated the solemn beatification.

Publications

Autobiographical

  • Memorie autobiographiche del P. Gabriele M. Allegra OFM Missionario in Cina, ed. by Serafino Gozzo, Roma 1986.
  • Scintille dantesche. Antologia dai diari, ed. by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi and Francesca Santi, Bologna 2011.

Fonts

  • Il primato di Cristo in San Paolo e Duns Scoto. Le mie conversazioni con Teilhard de Chardin. Edizioni Porziuncola, Assisi 2011.
  • Mary's Immaculate Heart: A way to God. Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago 1985.
  • Dante in Cina ossia studio su le versioni del sacro poema e delle liriche dantesche in cinese , in: Marco Polo, Shanghai (April 1942), 1–11.
  • La version chinoise de la Sainte Bible , in: Neue Zeitschrift für Missionwissenschaft 3 (1947), 286–289.
  • De studio biblico franciscano , in: Studii Biblici Franciscani, Liber Annuus III (1952/53), Jerusalem, 185-218.
  • Art. Chinese , in: Modern Bible translations (Ed. Josef Schmid), 1954, 41–43.
  • Messaggio sociale del Vangelo alla Cina , in: Vita e Pensiero (Milano) 39 (1956), 551-560.
  • Translation of the Scriptures into Chinese , in: World Mission 4, New York 1961, 97-105.
  • One in love for the Bible , in: Die Franziskanermissions 49 (1965), 2-3.
  • The universality and actuality of Dantes message (= Commemoratio for the 7th Centenary of his Birth), in: Oriental Studies Hong Kong University, 1965, 1-36.
  • The Chinese version of the Holy Bible of Studium Biblicum OFM Hongkong , in: Teaching all Nations, July 1965, 345–353.
  • De Doctrina Joannis Duns Scoti, in: Acta Congressus Scotistici Internationalis Oxonii et Edimburgi 1966 celebrati, vol. III, Roma 1968, 219-257.
  • La Sutra del Messia , in: Rivista Biblica (Paideia Brescia) 21 (1973), 165-168.
  • Lo Studio Biblico Francescano in Cinese , in: La Sacra Scrittura ei Francescani, Roma-Jerusalem, Ed. Antonianum 1973, 211-219.
  • Due testi nestoriani cinesi , in: Euntes docete 26 (1974), 300-319.
  • Quid cira cosmoniam sinicam erui possit ex poëmate (= Quaestiones celeste, a Chü Yüan composito) , in: Studii Biblici Franciscani, Liber Annuus 24 (1974), 70-93.
  • De Lexico biblico sinico , in: Studii Biblici Francescani, Liber Annuus XXV (1975), Jerusalem 269-277.

Translations

  • Incontro al dolore (Li Sao), Poema di Chü Yüan, tradotto e annotato in: Marco Polo, Shanghai, ABC Press, 1938, 1-29; I-XCIII, 1-26.
  • I nove canti, Poema II delle rapsodie di Chi yÜan, tradotto e annotato in: Marco Polo, anno III, nn. 9/10, Shanghai genn. 2941, 1-36.
  • Le domande celesti, Poema III delle rapsodie di Chi Yüan, tradotoo in: Marco Polo, anno IV, n. 13, Shanghai 1942, 1-18; anno IV, n.14, genn. 1943, 1-24; anno IV, n.15, apr. 1943, 1-30.
  • Le nove elegie di Chü Yüan, tradotto da Gilla Lebrera (pseudonym of Gabriele Allegra), Sassoferrato (La Pace), 1952.

literature

  • Umberto Castagna: La parola è seme. Vita di P. Gabriele Allegra francescano. Edizioni Porziuncola, Assisi 1977, ISBN 8827003339 .
  • Salvatore Consoli: Un albero fruttifero e ben radicato. Il Beato Gabriele Maria Allegra ofm. Klimax, Palermo 2012, ISBN 8896363063 .
  • Vittorio de Marco: Il Beato P. Gabriele M. Allegra. Dall'Italia alla Cina (1907-1976). Libreria Editrice, Vaticana 2014, ISBN 8820993902 .
  • Stéphane Oppes: Le memorie di fra 'Gabriele M. Amaria Allegra ofm. Il San Girolamo della Cina. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 2005.
  • Taroni, Massimiliano: Beato Gabriele Allegra. Apostolo della parola di Dio in Cina . Editrice VELAR, 2016, ISBN 978-88-6671-237-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Beato Gabriele Maria Allegra , website of the Franciscan Brothers Sicily, accessed on August 5, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Gabriele Allegra, on: Santi, beati e testimoni (it), accessed on August 5, 2020.
  3. ↑ Gabriele Maria Allegra: Memorie autobiographiche del P. Gabriele M. Allegra OFM Missionario in Cina . Ed .: P. Serafino Gozzo OFM 1st edition. Rome 1986, p. 59 .
  4. ^ Gabriele Maria Allegra: Il primato di Cristo in San Paolo e Duns Scoto. Le mie conversazioni con Teilhard de Chardin . Edizioni Porziuncola, Santa Maria degli Angeli - Assisi 2011.
  5. ^ Gabriele Maria Allegra: "Memorie" autobiographiche del P. Gabriele M. Allegra OFM Missionario in Cina . Ed .: P. Serafino Gozzo OFM Roma 1986, p. 23 .
  6. ^ De Marco, Vittorio: Il Beato P. Gabriele M. Allegra Dall'Italia alla Cina (1907-1976) . Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican 2014, ISBN 978-88-209-9390-0 , p. 124-126 .
  7. ^ Maria Valtorta: Il poema dell'Uomo-Dio. German: Der Gottmensch. Life and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ . tape 12 . Parvis-Verlag, Hauteville 2000.
  8. ^ Di Marco, Vittorio: II beato P. Gabriele M. Allegra . S. 286-287 .
personal data
SURNAME Allegra, Gabriele Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Allegra, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Franciscan, important Bible translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH San Giovanni la Punta
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1976
Place of death Hong Kong