MAZZUCCONI, GIOVANNI. - Missionary in Melanesia and Micronesia, born at Rancio (Lecco) in 1826, killed by savages on the island of Woodlark in 1855. Ordained priest in 1850, he was among the very first pupils of the nascent Istituto delle Missioni Estere of Milan, for which he drew up, together with his colleagues, the first draft of rules and composed the first prayers.
Having left for Oceania in March 1852, he carried out his missionary activity on the island of Rook, opposite New Guinea, for three years. Falling ill and compelled to seek treatment in Sydney, during the long journey he studied a considerable number of the islands of the archipelago, filling a notebook with notes which, unfortunately, was lost with him on the return voyage to his island. When the schooner on which he was travelling struck a coral reef on the island of Woodlark, it was attacked by savages, who massacred the entire crew, beginning with the missionary. A pure and gentle soul, he was regarded as a martyr like the b. Chanel, to whom he was compared by the Marist Fathers, witnesses to his virtues.