VERSIGLIA, LUIGI. - Salesian, bishop, martyr, b. at Olivo Gessi (diocese of Tortona) on 5 June 1873, killed at Linchow on 25 Feb. 1930.
Having entered the Salesians in 1888 and been ordained a priest, after studies at Foglizzo and at the Gregorian University, in 1895 he devoted a decade to the formation of the novices of his Congregation and to various ministries, until in 1906 he left for China to found a Chinese mission at Macao. In 1920 he was elected and consecrated apostolic vicar of the new vicariate of Shinchow, where he spent himself with all zeal and all his energies.
His companion in martyrdom was the Salesian Callisto Caravario, b. at Cuorgnè (diocese of Turin) on 8 Jan. 1903, who entered the Salesians in 1918, went to China in 1924, and was ordained a priest in 1929.
Having set out from Shinchow to visit the Christian community of Linchow, Mons. V., Don Caravario, and three Chinese girls, one of whom was a religious catechist, were surprised during a stretch of their journey by boat by Chinese bandits, who forced them to put in to the shore; they then demanded a large sum from the bishop, but afterwards, on seeing the girls, changed their minds and attempted to abduct them. The two missionaries opposed them and sought to defend them with their own bodies; but the enraged bandits mercilessly beat them, bound them, and killed them with rifle shots. The cause for the beatification of the two missionaries was introduced on 13 June 1952.