Sts. Louis
Versiglia, SDB (1873-1930), bishop,
and Callistus
Caravario, SDB (1903-1930), priest
On February 25, 1930, Salesians Bishop Louis
Versiglia, vicar apostolic of Shiu Chow, China, and Fr. Callistus Caravario,
pastor of the Lin Chow mission, was murdered at Li-Thau-Tseul in the
district of Lin Chow by Communist pirates while
journeying in the company of several female catechists, whose human dignity
they defended successfully at the cost of their own lives. The Salesian Family observes their feast day every year on their “heavenly
birthday.”
On October 1, 2000, St. John Paul the Great
canonized 120 martyrs who shed their blood for the Faith in China between 1648
and 1930. Of these, 87 were Chinese and 33 were missionaries. Their collective
memorial day is July 9.
Chronologically, the last two of these martyrs—the
only ones after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900—were Bp. Versiglia and Fr. Caravario.
Born in 1873 in the Italian province of Pavia,
Louis entered the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales at Turin in 1885. After
making his profession as a Salesian in 1889, he earned a degree in philosophy
at the Gregorian University in Rome, was ordained in 1895, and served as master
of novices in Rome from 1896 to 1905.
Then Fr. Michael Rua, Don Bosco’s successor as
Rector Major, tapped Fr. Versiglia to lead the first Salesian expedition to
China, which arrived at the Portuguese colony of Macao in 1906. When the
Salesians ventured onto the mainland to open a mission at Shiu Chow in 1918, he
led that group, and when the mission was erected into a vicariate apostolic in
1920, he was chosen as its bishop.
Bp. Versiglia displayed personal holiness, wisdom
in his government, and tireless activity as he organized and developed his
vicariate. He set up his episcopal headquarters and opened schools for boys and
girls (with the Salesian Sisters), a minor seminary for Chinese youths, a
formation center for local catechists, an orphanage, an old-age home, a medical
clinic, and some 20 mission stations.
Fr. Caravario, born in 1903 in the province of
Turin, was still a “baby priest,” having been ordained by Bp. Versiglia in May
1929. He too had studied at the Oratory, and after his profession in 1919 and
his postnovitiate studies had gone to China in 1924 as a missionary. He was
transferred to Timor for his practical training but returned to China and was
assigned to Lin Chow in Bp. Versiglia’s vicariate.
Fr. Caravario was characterized by his virtuous
life, pursuit of holiness, and missionary zeal. In February 1930 he traveled
from his mission to Shiu Chow in order to accompany Bp. Versiglia and his new
catechists upriver to Lin Chow—the fatal trip interrupted by Communist bandits.
The cause of canonization of the two sturdy
missionaries was initiated in 1953. Recognized as martyrs by Blessed Paul VI in
1976, they were beatified by St. John Paul II in May 1983, who also took the
initiative to add them to the roster of the Chinese martyrs to be canonized in
2000.
St. John Paul’s homily at the canonization Mass: http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20001001_canonization.html
Most of this article is based on the entries by
Domenico Garneri and Guido Bosio in the Dizionario
biografico dei Salesiani (Turin, 1969), ed. by Eugenio Valentini and Amedeo
Rodinò.
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