MASSAJA, GUGLIELMO. - Cardinal, Capuchin, b. at Piovà (Asti) on 8 June 1809, d. at S. Giorgio a Cremano (Naples) on 6 Aug. 1889 in the odor of sanctity. He entered the novitiate of the Madonna di Campagna in Turin on 6 Sept. 1826. He was a lecturer in philosophy and theology (1836-46), confessor to the princes Emanuele and Ferdinando of Savoy, and a definitor. Elected (12 May 1846) vicar apostolic of the Galla (southern Ethiopia), he set out from Rome for his mission (3 June 1846). He was the first Catholic bishop in modern times who, defying the death penalty, set foot again in Ethiopia and re-established the hierarchy there, consecrating three bishops in that country.
Exiled by Prince Ubiè, persecuted and excommunicated by the heretical bishop Salama, he became popular under the name of Abuna Messias. In the five years 1846-50 he traveled along the coasts of East Africa attempting a route to the Galla, but in vain; he helped save the Lazarist mission; he ordained several dozen priests and consecrated as bishop the future Bl. G. De Jacobis (7 Jan. 1849). Driven back to the sea once again, he returned to Europe in 1850, in order to interest the Holy See and France in the sad religious and political conditions of East Africa. The second journey (4 Apr. 1851), through Egypt and the Sudan, finally brought him to his mission (21 Nov. 1852), after six years of heroic attempts and romantic adventures.
In the Galla decade (1852-63) he founded mission centers in Gudrù, Ghera, etc., and in Kaffa (1859-61); he attended to the formation of the native clergy, creating "the traveling seminary"; he dictated to the missionaries admirable principles of apostolate in the Magna Charta of Assandabo (16 March 1854); he was a pioneer of medicine as a weapon of the apostolate, and he pacified princes and peoples whom he subdued by the holiness of his life. During the twofold European interlude (1864-66, 1867), he wrote a catechism, founded the Galla College of Marseilles (1866), and published the Lectiones grammaticales pro missionariis qui addicere volunt linguam amaricam seu vulgareem Abyssiniae nec non et linguam oromonicam (Paris 1877). The third journey (19 Apr. 1866) as far as Aden was followed by the fourth and last (9 Sept. 1867), which opened the Shoa period (1868-79).
A friend and counselor of Menelik, king of the country, he carried on such religious and social activity as to be proposed as Abuna of Ethiopia. But he did not accept. Exiled (1879) by order of King John, he returned to Italy, where the veneration of the masses for the servant of God reached the point of snipping pieces from his garments to keep as relics, as later happened on his deathbed. In Leo XIII he found his patron pope, who created him bishop of Stauropolis (1881) and cardinal (1884), despite the strong opposition of the candidate himself, who was often entertained in conversations on the most secret affairs of the Church. On hearing the announcement of his passing, the Holy Father exclaimed: "A saint has died!" The Church has opened his beatification processes.
At the "command" of Leo XIII, M. resigned himself to writing — when he was more than seventy years old — his classic work I miei trentacinque anni di missione nell'alta Etiopia (Rome-Milan 1885-95, in twelve large volumes).
Written out (1880-85) entirely in his own hand (not by his secretary, as had been believed until now), writing at times "at least fifteen hours a day," they are a mine of undisputed missiological and scientific value, not only for apostles and educators, but also for Africanists, explorers and scientists. They stand out in the missionary literature of the last century, and so far rank among the foremost of all time. Despite this, the work today is under broad criticism. An analytical study of the original — in 5 vols. of 3908 pp. — preserved in the Vatican Secret Archive, has revealed significant divergences with respect to the published work. The original fourfold design conceived and carried out by Card. M., that is, historical, apologetic, polemical and missiological, at the time of publication gave way to a design that harmonized the aforesaid aims in a work of a narrative and popular nature. For this reason, on the part of the collaborators, there followed omissions, additions and interpolations that ended by altering the character of the original and therefore of the author. Indeed, especially as regards omissions and additions, the disagreement between the two texts is evident: the former — amounting to more than 400 pp. — rejected, because largely of a missionary nature, into the background the extraordinary apostolic spirit of the "holy prelate"; the additions, moreover, especially with regard to a terminology including vulgar epithets such as scoundrel, rascal, son of the devil, dog, vulture, etc. (which are not found in the Vatican original), placed the supposed author in the false light of a presumptuous infallibility and harshness, which drew upon him bitter criticism and unfavorable judgments. The absence, finally, in the published work of that religious and providential substratum that vivifies the whole original is another significant gap that diminishes the gigantic figure of the protagonist. From the literary point of view, in the manuscript there is, it is true, an M. less polished and refined than the published one, but certainly more personal and effective, better served by a spare and spontaneous style, but incisive and eloquent, than by a "novel"-like style, such as that of I miei trentacinque anni.
In the manuscript, in short, there lives and dominates the historical, apologetic, polemical and missiological M., such as and as he himself wished to be.
Among the minor works, the pamphlet De la propagande musulmane en Afrique et dans les Indes (Paris 1851) deserves to be remembered, of such interest from the religious and political point of view of East Africa in the mid-nineteenth century as to make the rounds of the diplomatic desks of London and Paris. His epistolary manuscripts, finally, are scattered somewhat everywhere, in Italy, especially in the Archive of Propaganda Fide, and abroad, especially in the National Library of Paris, in Toulouse, and in Lyons. Almost all his African writings were lost.
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