BONDOLFI, PIETRO

BONDOLFI, Pietro. — Founder of the Swiss Institute of Foreign Missions, Bethlehem (v.). Born in Rome on 10 April 1872 to Swiss parents from Poschiavo; he completed his classical studies in Venice and then in Einsiedeln, his theological studies at the seminary in Chur; ordained a priest in 1896, he continued his studies at the University of Innsbruck and in Rome, earning a degree in canon law, and then at Louvain, where he obtained a licentiate in economic sciences. Returning to his diocese, he served as archivist of the Curia and in 1900 was assigned as parish priest to St. Moritz Bad. In 1907, his bishop, Monsignor Battaglia, sent him as a visitor to the Apostolic School that had been opened in Immensee by the Savoyard priest Pietro Barral for the ecclesiastical and missionary formation of youth, which was then experiencing a period of crisis. Bondolfi succeeded in saving the school and placing it on solid financial and moral foundations, transforming the previously rather vague work into a true missionary society for the recruitment of Swiss vocations. To this end, he traveled abroad, appealed to the Swiss episcopate, created a core of supporters and friends, and organized the internal life of the institution. In 1924, he was able to send the first three missionaries to China, and in 1929 he himself visited the new mission entrusted to the society. Struck by a serious illness in 1931, from which he was never to recover, he worked with faith and sacrifice to develop his work until his last day, 27 June 1943.