Gregory Mary Grassi,
O.F.M., (in
Italian language Gregorio Maria Grassi) (13 December 1833 – 9 July 1900) was an
Italian Franciscan friar and
bishop who is honored as a
Catholic martyr and
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
.
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
habit in the
Friary
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
of
Montiano
Montiano ( rgn, Muncin) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southeast of Bologna and about southeast of Forlì. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,573 ...
,
Romagna
Romagna ( rgn, Rumâgna) is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to t ...
, with the name Gregory. His solemn
profession was made one year later, on 14 December. He was then sent to
Bologna to do his
seminary studies, and was
ordained priest on 17 August 1856 in
Mirandola.
Then he was sent to
Rome for further training to prepare for his mission to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
In 1860 Grassi was assigned to
Taiyuan
Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. ...
, China, where he was appointed Mission Promoter, Director of the mission orphanage, and
choirmaster
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
at the seminary there.
On 25 January 1876, he was chosen as the
Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic for the
Apostolic Vicariate of Shansi. On 17 June 1891, he assumed authority over the
Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Shanxi. On 6 September 1891, he established a
novitiate
The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
to provide access to Franciscan life for the Chinese of all four vicariates in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
and a rest home for overworked missionaries.
He also dealt with the suffering of the local population brought on by
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
and
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
, 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

When the short but bloody
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
broke out in
Peking in June 1900 and the
Empress Dowager Cixi issued the
Imperial Decree of declaration of war against foreign powers
The Imperial Decree of declaration of war against foreign powers () was a simultaneous declaration of war by the Qing dynasty in 1900 against eleven foreign powers which held varying degrees of influence in China: Russia, the United States, the ...
, Grassi was urged to flee. He responded, "Ever since I was twelve, I have desired and also asked God for martyrdom. Now that this longed-for hour has come, must I run away?"
At the beginning of July, the Provincial Governor of Shanxi,
Yuxian, ordered the arrest of the European missionaries in the province. On 4 July a mob attacked the Franciscan mission in
Hengyang (southern
Hunan), murdering one of the friars,
Cesidio Giacomantonio, and burning the mission to the ground. A few days later, on 7 July, the friar who served as
Apostolic Vicar of Southern Hunan, bishop
Antonio Fantosati, and his companion, the friar Giuseppe Maria Gambario, were attacked while returning to the mission in Hengyang. Both were killed.
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." During the night of 5 July 1900, Grassi, along with fellow bishop
Francis Fogolla, three friars, seven
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
, image = Mariadelapasion2.jpg
, size = 175px
, caption = Blessed Mary of the Passion foundress of the congregation
, abbreviation = F.M.M
, motto =
, formation =
, founder = Hélène de Chappotin(Sister ...
, 11 Chinese members of the
Third Order of St. Francis
The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi.
The preaching of Francis and his disciples caused many ma ...
, of whom six were
seminarians, and three employees of the Taiyuan Mission were imprisoned by Boxer forces.
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.
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.
See also
Martyr Saints of China
Notes
References and further reading
*
External links
St. Gregory Grassi and Companions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grassi, Gregorio Maria
Italian Roman Catholic saints
1833 births
1900 deaths
Roman Catholic missionaries in China
19th-century Christian saints
Italian Friars Minor
Franciscan martyrs
Franciscan saints
People from Castellazzo Bormida
Executed Italian people
Beatifications by Pope Pius XII
Christian martyrs executed by decapitation
People executed by the Qing dynasty by decapitation