MAURO da 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, graduated in philosophy and theology (1908-12), and 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 took an interest in Ethiopian studies through articles and works; his Grammatica analitica della lingua tigray (Rome 1928) was highly regarded, 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 Romano-Ethiopian relations (Rome 1932); he published and translated the Lettere di Abba Tecle Haymanot di Adua (there, 1939); at the behest 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, there, 1932); he worked in the Anti-Slavery Society and defended the cause of persons of mixed race at various congresses. He was awarded the “Stella d'Etiopia.” He wrote historical monographs on Il predicatore apostolico (Isola del Liri 1929) and on S. Ippolito della Via Tiburtina (Rome 1935).