SAINT GIUSEPPE FREINADEMETZ
Those who know the village of Badia, know the name of Saint Giuseppe Freinademetz.
He was born in Oies - Badia on the15th of April of 1852, took his ordination of diocese of
Bressanone on the 25th of July 1875. After two years in San Martino in Badia, he went to
Steyl in Austria to prepare for a life as a missionary.
And yet a year late he settled in China and more precisely in Hong Kong. From that time on
he devoted himself to chinese people up to his death, in 1908. He was never scared by
difficulties, from persecutions, and from death he often faced very close. In the
beginning his mission was composed by a hundred- sixty catholics and at his death
they were forty thousand. Twenty years after his death the number was close to two
hundred thousand subdivided in five dioceses.
During his mission Saint Freinademetz wrote many letters, to his family, friends, and also
benefactors. In his letters he witnessed the love for his homeland and he thanked God for
the task he had given him. All his letters witnessed only one great fear, that too many
souls were lost, and he feared his family faith would get lost too. This took him to prayb
and work, without rest, and took him from one place to the other to see the Christian
communities, to take God's message and to talk about faith.
The people who used to know him, said he was the incarnation of Good, but instead of
seeing the Good in the world, he saw all the bad, all the world's sins.
Saint Giuseppe Freinademetz died on the 28th of January in 1908, after being persecuted
and tortured.
Pope Paul VI called him Blessed in 1975 and Pope Paulus II declared him Holy on the
5th October 2003.
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