MAURO OF LEONESSA. - Capuchin missionary and writer, b. at Leonessa (Rieti) on 10 May 1883, d. at Aquila on 1 Jan. 1946. He entered religious life in 1898, took his degree in philosophy and theology (1908-12), was a missionary first in Aden (1912), then in Eritrea (1913-25), and vice-rector of the Ethiopian College in Vatican City (1925-33).
He devoted himself to Ethiopian studies with articles and works; his Grammatica analitica della lingua tigray (Rome 1928) was well received, and he taught it in Rome at the Ethiopian College and at the University of Naples (1933-42); Computo per il Calendario abissino confrontato con il computo latino (Asmara 1918); Dissertazioni cronologiche: cronologia e Calendario etiopico (Tivoli 1934); he carried out historical research on the Roman church of S. Stefano degli Abissimi and on Roman-Ethiopian relations (Rome 1932); he published and translated the Lettere di Abba Tecle Haymanot di Adua (ibid. 1939); at the charge of the S. Congregazione per gli Orientali, he collected the Testi di diritto antichi riguardanti gli Etiopi (fascs. v-VI of the Fonti per la codificazione canonica orientale, ibid. 1932); he worked in the anti-slavery Society and defended the cause of the mestizos at various congresses. He was decorated with the «Stella d'Etiopia». He wrote a historical monograph on Il predicatore apostolico (Isola del Liri 1929) and on St. Hippolytus of the Via Tiburtina (Rome 1935).
Bibliography
Ilarino da Milano