Saint Francesco Fogolla

Francesco Fogolla (4 October 1839 – 9 July 1900), known in Chinese as Fu Zhujiao, was an Italian missionary prelate belonging to the Order of Friars Minor. On 28 June 1898, Fogolla was appointed titular bishop of Bageis and coadjutor bishop of Northern Shanxi, China. Fogolla was killed at the Taiyuan Massacre of 9 July 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. He is considered a martyr by the Catholic Church and is venerated as a saint. He was born Francesco Antonio Domenico Fogolla to parents Gioacchino and Elisabetta Ferrari on 4 October 1839 in the Tuscan town of Mulazzo. On 1 November 1856, Fogolla was admitted into the Order of Friars Minor at the Abbey of St Maria del Monte. On 14 September 1857, he fell ill and was sent away to live with his parents, who now lived in Parma. Upon recovery, he resumed novitiate and ordained a priest on 19 September 1862. In 1866, Fogolla requested to become a missionary. On 13 December 1866, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples approved him for service. Fogolla arrived in China on 30 May 1867. After travelling the region, he arrived at his first permanent assignment was at the Datong missions in December, where he cared for a community of about 700 Catholics. He was known to preach in public, a practice which led to his imprisonment for two days in 1870 as it was believed he caused street riots. Over the seven years following this arrest, he was assigned to various missions in Shanxi, including Pingyao, where he developed exception skill with the Chinese language. In 1877, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples divided the Shanxi vicariate into two parts. Fogolla was appointed Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Shanxi, which has since become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lu'an. This position placed 13,150 Catholics under his supervision, including 17 European missionaries and 15 indigenous Chinese priests.