Balzola, Giovanni

BALZOLA, GIOVANNI. - Salesian missionary and explorer. Born on 1 February 1864 at Villa Miroglio (Cuneo), died at Barcellos on 17 August 1927. At the age of twenty he was received by Don Bosco into the work "Maria Ausiliatrice" for late vocations. A priest in 1892, on 2 April of the following year he set out for Brazil as secretary to Msgr. Lasagna; on 8 January 1895 he was appointed director of the government colony "Teresa Cristina" (Matto Grosso) to civilize the savage Bororos, whom with patience and tenacity he bent to work, taking an interest in their life and tending them in their illnesses. In 1900 he took part in an expedition among the Caiabi Indians; the journey, which lasted several weeks and was beset by the savages and by fevers, ended in the region of the upper Paranatinga, at the place he called "Redenzione" (now its official name). He founded many other settlements in the following years, continuing his expeditions as far as the borders of Venezuela and Colombia. Exhausted by the climate and by privations, in 1945 he had to return to his homeland: but, as soon as he had recovered, he returned to his work. His health, however, was shaken, and he died after having seen his work crowned: faith and civilization had penetrated into the forests of the Rio S. Lorenzo and the Rio Negro.