Guglielmo Massaia

Guglielmo Cardinal Massaia

Guglielmo Massaia OFMCap , sometimes Massaja , baptized Lorenzo Antonio Massaia (born June 8, 1809 in Piovà Massaia , Piedmont , † August 6, 1889 in San Giorgio a Cremano ) was an Italian Catholic missionary, Capuchin and cardinal .

Life

Massaia was baptized Lorenzo Antonio Massaia and took the name of his brother Guglielmo after his death. He attended the Collegio Reale school in Asti . After the death of his older brother Guglielmo, canon and cantor of the Cathedral of Asti , he went first to the seminary and then joined the Capuchin order at age 16. On September 25, 1825, he received his religious garb, the habit .

After his ordination in 1832 he became a lecturer in theology and gained some prominence as a preacher . Thereupon Prince Viktor Emanuel , later King of Italy, and Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa , chose him as their confessor . Even Silvio Pellico sought his spiritual support. The royal family of Piedmont wanted to appoint him bishop several times , but he refused to attend the Oromo mission of his order in 1846 . On May 24, 1846, Massaia received the episcopal ordination through Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni in the church of S. Carlo al Corso in Rome, co- consecrators were Giovanni Brunelli , Apostolic Delegate in Spain, and Bishop Jean-Félix-Onésime Luquet MEP. Then Massaia set out for Ethiopia .

In 1850 he visited Europe in order to attract a new group of missionaries and funds to develop his work. He held talks with the French Minister for Foreign Affairs in Paris and with Lord Palmerston in London. A serious illness forced him to resign in 1880.

During his 35 years as a missionary, he was banished seven times, but kept coming back. In recognition of his services, Pope Leo XIII raised him . to the rank of titular archbishop of Stauropolis , director of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and on November 10, 1884 cardinal with the titular church Santi Vitale, Valeria, Gervasio e Protasio .

By order of the Pope, he wrote his experiences as a missionary in the book I miei trentacinque anni di missione nell 'alta Etiopia , the first edition of which was published simultaneously in Rome and Milan in 1883 and the last in 1895. In this work he was not concerned only with the progress of the mission, but also with the political and economic conditions in Ethiopia as he knew them. For the last ten years he lived in the Capuchin monastery in Frascati (Rome).

Missionary work

Father Guglielmo Massaia OFMCap as Bishop

At the beginning of the 17th century an edict of persecution was issued against the Jesuits and for over a century only Franciscans were allowed to continue to work in the region, but they were also confronted with martyrdom in 1683 . After some failed initiatives by Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIV , France did not invade Ethiopia until 1873, where the explorers Arnaud and Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie explored the country and forwarded the first detailed information to Propaganda Fide with an urgent request for missionaries to be sent .

In 1846, the year of propaganda , Massaia came to Abyssinia (East Africa) as vicar . The mission, commissioned by Pope Gregory XVI. , consisted in building a Vicariate Apostolic Galla for the Oromo from the Apostolic Prefecture of Abyssinia, founded in 1839 . (from 1961: Archdiocese of Addis Ababa ) The territory was divided into three parishes, u. a. the Apostolic Vicariate of Sudan (or Central Africa ), entrusted to Bishop Daniele Comboni in 1877 .

Upon arriving in Ethiopia, he found the country in a state of religious movement. In the Gibbeestaaten the spread of Islam from. The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church , Abuna Qerellos III. , had been dead for 20 years and there was a movement among local Christians for unity with Rome. Massaia was empowered by the Pope to ordain a number of local Coptic priests. When he met the missionary and Lazarist Justinus de Jacobis , from Pope Paul VI. Canonized in 1975, consecrated to this office, this aroused the hostility of the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria , who immediately appointed one of his bishops, Abuna Salama III. , sent to Ethiopia. As a result of the political agitation that followed, Massaia was expelled from the country and had to flee under an assumed name.

After his return to the Oromos he founded a large number of missions, including a school in Marseille for the education of the Oromo boys who were freed from slavery . For this he created a grammar of the Oromo , which was published in Marseille in 1867.

In 1855 he was one of the first Europeans in Bonga ( Kaffa ), went to Shewa (formerly Shoa ) in 1868 , until he was expelled in 1879 by King Menelik II , later Emperor of Ethiopia.

St. Anthony Monastery

Zeila in Somalia. Drawing by G. Massaia

In June 1851, Massaia was hoisted up to St. Anthony's monastery . His concern was to free Michelangelo, a Catholic brother-in-law who had been kidnapped by the Copts. His plan went wrong and he used a different ruse:

Massaia rode to the St. Anthony monastery accompanied by a young monk and three other Egyptians. A young Catholic Copt lived there as a prisoner, who had studied propaganda in Rome and was "banished" by Coptic monks to St. Anthony's monastery after his return. The Vicar Apostolic was on his way to Ethiopia, where Qummus Daud from St. Anthony's Monastery was just staying to preach against the missionary activities of Massaia. In the monastery, the Catholic hierarch took the name "Georg Bartorelli" and repeatedly met in secret with the Coptic Catholic, who had taken the name Michelangelo and had been in the hands of the Copts for two years. The monks said that their spring water was made by St. Anthony had been blessed and had the power to purify spirit and soul. However, a certain medicine must be added to the water, otherwise the person who drinks it would be transformed into a woman. Massaia promised to get this medicine from Cairo for the monks , provided Michelangelo would accompany him to Cairo. The prank succeeded, and on the return journey the two Catholics in Beni Suef notified the French consul.

Honors

In 1940 his home village Piovà was renamed Piovà Massaia in his honor , and the Museo Etiopico Guglielmo Massaia was founded in Frascati . In Italy numerous cities, squares and institutions are named after him, e.g. B. the Via Cardinale Guglielmo Massaia in Turin and Rome. The Italian government honored him in 1952 by issuing a commemorative stamp.

Beatification process

In 1914, the beatification process was initiated, which Benedict XV. 1916 was interrupted. The resumption took place in 1993 at the request of John Paul II. Pope Francis awarded him the heroic degree of virtue on December 1, 2016 .

Works

• I miei trentacinque anni di missione nell 'alta Etiopia. Milan 1885-95, 12 vols. Analecta Ordinis FF. Min. Capp., V, 291 seq. ( In Abissinia e fra i Galla , 1895); New edition Turin 1986.

literature

• Ernst Bauerochse: Your destination was the Oromoland: the beginning of the Hermannsburg missionary work in Ethiopia. Volume 14 of sources and contributions to the history of the Hermannsburg Mission and the Ev.-Luth. Mission in Lower Saxony, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2006, ISBN 382589567X , ISBN 9783825895679 .
• Rosalinde Filosa: In the favor and anger of the Negus: Guglielmo Massaia, pioneer in the Ethiopian south. St. Gabriel Mödling, 1979.
• Lawrence Hess:  Guglielmo Massaia . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 10, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1911.
• Mauro Forno:  Massaja, Guglielmo. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 71:  Marsilli – Massimino da Salerno. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2008.

Web links

• Publications by and about Guglielmo Massaia in the Opac des Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale
• Massaia, OFMCap., Guglielmo. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed November 24, 2016.
• Entry on Guglielmo Massaia on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on November 24, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ So on the page of the Capuchins and in the Italian dictionary of saints Santi, Beati e Testimoni.
2. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , December 2, 2016, accessed December 2, 2016 (Italian).