GALLO, Luigi. - Missionary Oblate of the Virgin Mary and historian of the Burmese missions. B. at Carignano (Turin) on 11 Nov. 1817, d. at Nice on 16 Apr. 1863. He professed among the Oblates of the Virgin Mary on 21 June 1836, and departed for Ava and Pegu (Burma) on 22 July 1843, laboring there for three years with zeal and fruitfulness; he returned in 1846 broken in health.
He holds a not insignificant place in the historiography of missions for his diligent work *Storia del cristianesimo nell’Impero Birmano*, preceded by notes on the country (3 vols., Milan 1862). It provides ample information on the geography, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and ethnology of the land, and then soberly recounts the history of the evangelization of that region first by the Barnabites and, after their withdrawal during the war, by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, of which latter period the author himself was for three years (1843–46) a witness and collaborator.
Returning to Turin in 1847, he continued his missionary work at the sanctuary of the Consolata until 1858. He was also a good musician, and some hymns to the Madonna still popular in devotion are his work.