Raimondi, Giovanni Timoleone

RAIMONDI, GIOVANNI TIMOLEONE. - First apostolic vicar of Hong Kong, b. in Milan in 1827, d. in Hong Kong in 1894. Brother of ANTONIO, naturalist and explorer of Peru, after having taken part, as a cleric, in the barricades of 1848, he entered, in 1850, the newly founded Seminary of the missions, and, destined for Melanesia and Micronesia, he was part of the first group of those departing, in 1852.

He worked on the island of Woodlark until 1855, then, having returned from the islands because of illness, in Manila and in Borneo. Having moved to Hong Kong in 1858, he remained there until his death, first as a simple missionary, then as vice-prefect and vice-procurator of Propaganda (1860-67), prefect and procurator (1867-74), bishop-vicar apostolic. In Hong Kong he greatly developed the schools and built the new Cathedral. He also gave vigorous impetus to the apostolate on the mainland, purely Chinese, annexed to the colony of Hong Kong, first exploring the terrain and then visiting its missionary stations every year, and he did not neglect to regulate the whole activity of the mission, calling two synods and publishing a volume of Monita for the use of his missionaries. His letters-reports were published in the Museo delle Missioni cattoliche of Turin, in L'osservatore lombardo of Brescia and in the Cattolico of Milan, then in the Missioni cattoliche; his unpublished correspondence is very copious.

Giovanni B. Tragella