CATALDO, GIUSEPPE M. BENIAMINO. – An eminent Jesuit missionary, born at Terrasini (Palermo) on 17 March 1837; he entered the novitiate in 1852. Expelled from Sicily because of the revolution of 1860, two years later he was assigned to the missions of the Rocky Mountains and went to Boston to complete his theological studies. However, sickly from childhood and now declared by the physicians to be in an advanced state of consumption, he soon had to seek the milder climate of California.
It is therefore all the more remarkable to see him begin in 1865 his long career of hardship and privation as a missionary among the Indians in the Rocky Mountains. His tenacity brought about numerous conversions among the Cuori-di-lesina, the Nasi-forati, and the Spokani; his peacemaking intervention was highly appreciated when war broke out in 1877 between the Nasi-forati Indians and the American government. Superior of the entire mission from 1877, he remained there until 1893, extending its field through various foundations, especially in the city of Spokane, which regards him as its founder and owes much of its development to him. Among other works, he established Gonzaga College there (a university since 1912). After relinquishing the government of the mission, he moved from one post to another, first as visitor and then as a simple missionary in Alaska (a mission that he himself had received for his Order from the hands of Mgr. Seghers), parish priest of the Italians at S. José (California), and in charge of various Indian stations, despite the infirmities of age (the Indians called him «metatoponim»: three times broken, because he had broken his leg and arm three times and walked with crutches).
The celebrations of his ninetieth anniversary and of his seventy-fifth year of religious life received wide attention in the United States. He died at Pendleton on 9 April 1928.