Cardinal Guglielmo Massaia (1809-1889)

Today marks the death of Cardinal Guglielmo Massaia, and the following is taken from the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia:

Born Lorenzo Massaia in Piedmont, he joined the Capuchins at sixteen and took the Guglielmo. After his ordination, he achieved renown as a preacher and was appointed confessor to Prince Victor Emmanuel, afterwards King of Italy, and Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa. The royal family of Piedmont would have nominated him on several occasions to an episcopal see, but he wanted to go tot the missions. In 1846, he was sent to Ethiopia to establish a Vicariate-Apostolic for the Gallas in Abyssinia. Massaia, who had received plenary faculties from the pope, ordained a number of native priests for the Coptic Rite; he also obtained the appointment by the Holy See of a vicar-apostolic for the Copts, and himself consecrated St. Justin de Jacobis to this office. This angered the Coptic Patriarch of Egypt, who sent a bishop of his own to Ethiopia. As a result of the ensuing political agitation, Massaia was banished from Ethiopia. In 1850 he visited Europe to gain a fresh band of missionaries. On his return to Ethiopia, he founded a large number of missions. He also established a school at Marseilles for the education of boys whom he had freed from slavery; besides this he composed a grammar of the Galla language which was published at Marseilles in 1867. During his thirty-five years as a missionary he was exiled seven times, but he always returned to his labours with renewed vigour. However, in 1880 he was compelled by ill-health to resign his mission. Pope Leo XIII named him a Cardinal in recognition of his work.