BONDOLFI, PIETRO

BONDOLFI, PIETRO. - Founder of the Swiss Institute for Foreign Missions, Bethlehem (v.). Born in Rome on 10 April 1872 to Swiss parents from Poschiavo; he pursued his classical studies in Venice and then at Einsiedele, and his theological studies at the seminary of Coira; ordained priest in 1896, he continued his studies at the University of Innsbruck and in Rome, obtaining a degree in canon law, then at Lovanio, where he obtained a licentiate in economic sciences. Having returned to his diocese, he was archivist of the Curia and in 1900 entered pastoral ministry at St-Moritz Bad. In 1907 his bishop, Msgr Battaglia, sent him as visitor to the Apostolic School which had been opened at Immensee by the Savoyard priest Pietro Barral for the ecclesiastical and missionary formation of youth, and which was then passing through a period of crisis. B. succeeded in saving the school and in placing it on sound financial and moral foundations, developing the undertaking, formerly rather vague, into a true missionary society for the recruitment of Swiss vocations. For this purpose he travelled abroad, addressed appeals to the Swiss episcopate, created a nucleus of adherents 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. Stricken in 1931 by a grave illness, from which he was never to recover, he worked with faith and sacrifice for the development of his work until his last day, 27 June 1943.