MANTEGAZZA, GAETANO MARIA. – Missionary, born in Milan on 11 April 1745, died at Amarapura (Burma) on 4 August 1794. He was given the name Cesare, which, upon entering the Barnabites, he changed to that of G. M. Ordained a priest (1768), for two years he taught philosophy at the Collegio di S. Giovanni delle Vigne in Lodi; then, in 1771, he began the journey together with Fr. Marcello Cortenovis and landed at Rangoon on 18 October 1772.
In order to be better prepared for missionary work, he mastered the Burmese language and the religious language pati. In 1780 he was appointed bishop of Massimianopolis in partibus and coadjutor to Mgr. Gherardo Cortenovis, apostolic vicar of Ava and Pegù, whom he soon succeeded, since the latter died before M. had been consecrated. On 4 January 1784 he departed for Rome, both to be consecrated and to prevent the Barnabites from abandoning that difficult mission. Consecrated a bishop and having supervised the printing of his Alphabetum Barmanorum seu regni Avenusis (1787), the Catechismus pro Barmanis, written by Mgr. Percoto, and a book of prayers, in January 1787 he set out again for Burma, where he arrived the following year and found the mission devastated by wars. He sought to reorganize it with the few missionaries available, but the hardships and exertions led to his premature death, which overtook him at Amarapura, where he is buried. He left an account known as Relazione dei regni di Ava e Pegù, or also Storia barmana, written in French during his return journey to Europe (1784). It discusses the history, language, usages, customs, and wealth of the kingdoms of Ava and Pegù and of their inhabitants, and was published only in 1950. The other manuscript, still unpublished, consists of the Dinloghi tra un khieu selvaggio ed un siamese ex-talapoino, written in Rome in 1785 or 1786 as a supplement to the chapter of the Relazione concerning the religion of the Burmese.