Gregorio Grassi
Saint Gregory Grassi O.F.M. | |
---|---|
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Religious, Bishop and Martyr | |
Born | 13 December 1833 Castellazzo Bormida, Piedmont, Italy |
Died | 9 July 1900 Taiyuan, Shanxi, China |
Venerated in | Catholic Church |
Beatified | 27 November 1946 by Pope Pius XII |
Canonized | 1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II |
Feast | 9 July |
Gregory Mary Grassi,
.He is one of the 120 Martyrs of China who were canonized on 1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II.
Early life and mission
He was born Pier Luigi Grassi in Castellazzo Bormida, in the Piedmont region of Italy, on 13 December 1833.
At the age of 15, on 2 November 1848, he took the Franciscan
Then he was sent to Rome for further training to prepare for his mission to China.
In 1860 Grassi was assigned to
On 25 January 1876, he was chosen as the
He also dealt with the suffering of the local population brought on by plague and famine, which led him to enlarge the orphanage in the city and establish several others, in order to cope with the orphans left behind by these catastrophes.
Martyrdom
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Franciscan_Martyrs_of_Shanxi.jpg/220px-Franciscan_Martyrs_of_Shanxi.jpg)
When the short but bloody
At the beginning of July, the Provincial Governor of Shanxi,
On 27 June 1900, Grassi described the situation of Christians in the Shanxi province in a letter, saying, "The European establishments... are seriously threatened by the mob, united with the Boxers and the soldiers: a catastrophe could occur at any moment. The gates of the city are open, but they are guarded by the Boxers, who prevent the travel of Christians. Now, in the outskirts, we are in the throes of a real revolution: nothing and no one can be said to be safe."
On 9 July 1900, Grassi, along with the rest, was escorted from prison with his hands bound behind his back to public trial presided by Yuxian. After a false trial, the group was sentenced to death. Grassi was stripped naked before a crowd of onlookers and Yuxian himself cut Grassi to pieces with a sword. His heart was removed from his body and delivered to Chinese Buddhist monks so that they could study its alleged occult powers. By custom, Grassi's head was severed from his corpse so that it could be put on display in a small cage at the city entrance. What remained of his corpse, along with the corpses of all the others killed that day, was tossed over the city wall and left unburied so that dogs would eat the remains.[8] These killings are known as the Taiyuan massacre.
Throughout China during the Boxer Uprising, 5 bishops, 50 priests, 2 brothers, 15 sisters and 40,000 Chinese Christians were killed.
The 146,575 Catholics served by the Franciscans in China in 1906 had grown to 303,760 by 1924 and were served by 282 Franciscans and 174 local priests.
Veneration
Grassi, along with his companions Fogolla and Fantosati, was
See also
Notes
- ^ "Il martirio di San Gregorio Grassi". L'Indicatore Mirandolese (in Italian). No. 5. 2018-03-01. p. 24.
- ^ "Bishop St. Grégoire Grassi, O.F.M. Obs". Catholic Hierarchy.
- ^ Office for Saints O.F.M. "The Friars Minor in Shanxi" Archived 2012-01-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Ss. Gregory Grassi, Hermine Grivot (Virgin), And Companions", The Irish Franciscans
- ^ Grassi qtd. in Valli, Mario (1905). Gli avvenimenti in Cina Nel 1900 e l'azione della R. Marina Italiana (in Italian). Milan. p. 259.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "7 Martyrs". Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Archived from the original on 2021-05-03. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
- ^ Valli, Mario (1905). Gli avvenimentiin Cina nel 1900 e l'azione della R. Marina italiana. Milan. p. 260.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Valli 1905, pp. 260–261
- ^ a b Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 87.
References and further reading
- Clark, Anthony E. (2011). China's Saints: Catholic Martyrdom During the Qing (1644-1911). Bethlehem PA; Lanham, Md.: Lehigh University Press; Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781611460162.