APPIA, GIORGIO. — Waldensian pastor, son of Paolo, b. 1827, d. 1910. In Torre Pellice, between 1854 and 1855, A. founded a hospice for boys, an orphanage for girls, and the school of the Copisti. In 1859–61, during the height of the Risorgimento, he was in Pinerolo. In 1861–62, he introduced Protestantism in Palermo and in the following three years in Naples, where, with the Waldensian community, he established a small evangelical normal school. In 1865, he taught exegesis at the Waldensian faculty in Florence, and in 1866 he was in Trentino with Garibaldi, cooperating with his brother Luigi and collaborating with Dunant in the founding of the Red Cross. In the following forty years, he resided in Paris as a Lutheran pastor. The most fruitful experience of his life, which he himself said drew him away from Catholicism, occurred in Palermo where, in 1862, a vigorous religious controversy arose, conducted through sermons and pamphlets, between him, various priests—especially Canon Turano—and the Bishop of Girgenti.
APPIA, GIORGIO
BIBL.: G. A., Roma e la Scrittura. Dieci lettere al re. Canonico D. Turano, Palermo 1862; D. Turano, Risposta al sig. A. Valdese in occasione del suo opuscolo «Roma e la Scrittura», ibid. 1862; G. A., Un’umile lettera al re. canonico D. Turano, contributo in risposta alla sua risposta, ibid. 1862.