China

“Much too young I left my family and now I return, as an old man:
How thin my hair on my head! Even though I have still my native accent,
unknown children meet me, smile, and ask: Where are you from, stranger?…”
– Ho-Tche-Chang –

T hree years after the foundation of the Xaverians, Guido M. Conforti had a young priest who helped him in the guidance of young missionary students, while Conforti was quite busy as Vicar General of the Diocese. That was the year 1898. It was in that year that Mons. Francis Fogolla, bishop in China, came to Parma. Even in the midst of doubts, Conforti did not hesitate to send to China Fr. Caio Rastelli, and the only theology student, Deacon Odoardo Manini. They left with Bishop Fogolla.

As soon as they settle in the Eastern Shanxi, Fr. Caio was sent to the Western Mountains. He personally experienced the sacrifices of hunger and the endless work to be done. With the Boxer insurrection, Fr. Caio made his escape through rough terrains and valleys, followed by a group of ten soldiers who wanted him dead. Young Manini, too, found it difficult to avoid the persecution. They both arrived in Mongolia, and found refuge in the fortified residence of the Scheut Father, Belgian missionaries. For two months they sustained the assault of the Boxers and Mongols.

Meanwhile, at Taiyan-fu, capital of Shanxi and center of the diocese, Bishops Grassi and Fogolla were killed, together with three missionaries, seven sisters, five seminarians, and nine mission workers. With them, 32 protestants were also killed, the pastors with their families.

At the end of the persecution, Fr. Caio Rastelli was exhausted by the travels, the lack of sleep, the desolation of the land, the illness of typhoid. He died on Feb. 28, 1901, at the age of 28. Conforti called home Manini, the only remaining missionary. The first mission to China was over in two years.

But Conforti did not waver. In 1902 he was named bishop of Ravenna, and asked the Propagation of the Faith to assign his missionaries to a new mission in China. Four of these missionaries left for the region of Honan, China in 1904. After two years, three other Xaverians reached them. And in the following years, they left two by two.

This new mission did not come without complications and sorrows. In 1908 Fr. Vincent Dagnino, the youngest of the Xaverians, contacted yellow fever while assisting a sick; he died in just a few days, and he was 24 years old. The following year, Fr. Corrado Di Natale, a Maltese Xaverian of 23 years of age, died of malaria, after only a 40 day-stay in China.