CRESCITELLI, ALBERICO, VENERABILE

ALBERICO CRESCITELLI, Venerable. — Missionary, killed for the faith in the apostolic vicariate of Hanchung (China). Born at Altavilla Irpina (Avellino) on 30 June 1863, he was a student at the Pontifical Seminary for Foreign Missions in Rome. On 2 April 1888 he left for the mission, arriving there on 18 August, and worked in various districts with untiring zeal, forming sincere and well-prepared Christians. In 1900 he was entrusted with a vast mountainous district inhabited by a semi-wild population. When famine raged, his charity brought about a comforting movement of conversions. With the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion (v.), he was captured by them and on 21 July 1911 was tortured and beheaded in the village of Yentzepien. In 1918 the process on his martyrdom began; his beatification is imminent.