Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - In the evening of Wednesday 10 March at the church of San Francesco annexed to the Capuchin Monastery in Frascati (Rome) where he was living at the time of his death and where his earthly remains are laid to rest, the diocesan supplementary process on the fame of holiness of the servant of God Cardinal Guglielmo Massaja, Capuchin, one of the greatest evangelisers of Africa particularly in Upper Ethiopia. He is considered one of the greatest missionaries of the 19th century inspired by the work of Comboni and Allamano.
Born on 8 June 1809 at Piovà (now Piovà Massaia in his honour), in the province and diocese of Asti, Guglielmo Massaja entered the Capuchin Order while still a boy. He was ordained a priest in 1832. Immediately afterwards he became seriously ill: he promised God he would be a missionary if he recovered. However when he did recover he was given other responsibilities, including that of chaplain at Mauriziano Hospital, Turin, an experience which he would find useful some years later in Africa. He was ordained a Bishop in 1846 and Pope Gregory XVI entrusted him with the apostolic Vicariate of Galla in Upper Ethiopia which had just been created. Massaja reached his See only in 1852, after a journey which was adventurous to say the least: he crossed the desert in sand storms, sailed up the River Nile dressed as a merchant, fought with crocodiles, was assailed and taken captive.
The years of his missionary work were dense with events: he introduced vaccination against smallpox which was reaping thousands of victims among the Galla peoples, producing a new formula and vaccinating personally hundreds of patients; he founded a religious institute, the Monks of the Galla Vicariate; he devoted himself to the formation of local youth and clergy; he baptised thousands of catechumens; ordained three Bishops; wrote a catechism for the Galla and published the first grammar book in their language; he promoted the development of rural people in various ways. He is also considered the founder of the present-day Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa: in fact it was Massaja who in 1868 organised a new farm colony which then developed and became so large that in 1889 Ethiopia’s emperor Menelik II made it his capital. These adventures were the basis for a film on his missionary work, “Abuna Messias” (as the local people called him Massaja) was produced in the late 1930s.
In 1879 Emperor Joannes IV sent Massaja into exile. Pope Leone XIII asked him to write his memoirs: he filled 12 volumes which tell of 35 years of missionary activity in Upper Ethiopia. This literary work is considered the best documentation on 19th century Ethiopia because it describes in detail the history, customs and culture of those peoples. Created Cardinal in 1884, Massaja died on 6 August 1889. The process di canonisation opened in 1914 remained at a standstill for about 70 years. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 12/3/2004; Righe 32; Parole 458)
