FREINADEMETZ, JOSEPH. — Born at Badia in Val Badia (Bolzano) on 15 April 1852 to pious peasants. Ordained a priest on 25 July 1875, on 4 July 1878, with the permission of his bishop, Msgr. Gasser, he entered the Society of the Divine Word, recently founded (1875) at Steyl (Holland).
On 2 March 1879 he was one of the first two missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word to depart for Southern Shantung (China), where upon his arrival at Puoli he found 158 Christians. He worked there for almost 30 years, a true model missionary, in positions of leadership and amid every kind of sacrifice. He was greatly concerned with the formation of the indigenous clergy. For Chinese theology students he wrote Sanctissimum Novae Legis sacrificium (2nd ed., Yenchowfu 1926; republished in 1948 at Steyl). He died on 28 January 1908 at Taikia of typhus, in a reputation for holiness. Southern Shantung (the vicariate of Yenchowfu) then had approximately 46,000 Christians, 45,000 catechumens, 12 Chinese priests trained by Fr. F., and 74 seminarians, among them the future Cardinal Tommaso Tien. The beatification process is under way.