CERETTI, GIOVANNI DOMENICO – Born in Alice Vercellese on 15 Feb. 1793, died in Turin on 29 Dec. 1855 and buried in the cathedral of S. Giovanni. Professed among the Oblates of Mary on 19 Mar. 1835. Consecrated in Rome as bishop of Antinopoli on 31 July 1842, he became the first Apostolic Vicar of the mission in Ava and Pegu (Burma), entrusted to the same Oblates.
He gave strong impetus to missionary works, but soon (26 Dec. 1845) had to leave the mission for reasons of health. He retired first to Rome (1846), then to Turin (1850), discharging there the episcopal functions of the exiled archbishop, Msgr. Fransoni. In the brief years he survived, he also earned fame as a staunch Catholic polemicist with his volumes Della vera e falsa libertà; Libertà d’istruzione ed educazione della gioventù; Libertà della Chiesa, all three published anonymously in Turin in 1850.