GNECCHI SOLDI, ORGANTINO. - Jesuit, missionary, born at Casto Val Sabbia (Brescia) in 1553, died at Nagasaki on April 22, 1609. Entering the Jesuits in 1555, he was for some time rector of the College of Loreto and then of St. Paul in Goa, India, where he had gone in 1567. But already the following year he set sail for Japan and, settling in the capital Miyako, remained there from 1570 for more than 35 years, even during periods of persecution. Worn out by labors and illness, he was forced to retire to Nagasaki in 1606, where he died three years later.
Loved and esteemed by all for his gentle prudence, indefatigable zeal (he baptized 11,000 idolaters in one year), and skill in governance, he enjoyed the special confidence of the two rulers Taikosama and Nobunaga, from whom he obtained several favors. In Miyako he built a beautiful church, with the faithful contributing generously to the expenses, and in memory of Xavier's arrival in Japan, which took place on August 15, he wished to dedicate it to Mary Assumed into Heaven and on August 15, 1576, before it was finished, he blessed it and celebrated the first Mass there. Another church, dedicated to St. Michael, he erected a league away from Miyako, and he also opened a seminary in Azoutchi in 1582 to train an indigenous clergy. An heir to Xavier's spirit, he thanked the Lord for having chosen him to be a slave to his beloved bride, the dear Japanese Christendom.