GREGORY GRASSI, Blessed. - Observant Franciscan, bishop, and martyr in China. Born at Castellazzo Bormida (Alessandria) on 13 December 1833; died at Tai-yuangfu (northern Shansi) on 9 July 1900.
Franciscan in 1848, priest in 1856, in 1861 he set out for China, where for 40 years he exercised his fruitful zeal as a simple missionary and later as titular Bishop of Orthosia and coadjutor with right of succession, then as Apostolic Vicar of Northern Shansi. During the persecution of 1900, stirred up by Tse-Hsi, mother of the emperor, with the support of the Boxers, he was imprisoned in his residence at Tai-yuangfu on 5 July and killed in hatred of the faith on the 9th of the same month. Beatified by Pius XII, together with 28 other companions, both Europeans and Chinese, on 27 November 1946. The cause of canonization was resumed on 25 February 1949 (AAS, 41 [1949], pp. 8-4, 472-73). For the names of the other martyr companions, V. CHINA, III, cols. 1666-67.