CARAVARIO, CALLISTO (KALIKST), ST.

Missionary priest, Salesian martyr; b. Cuorgne near Turin, Piedmont, Italy, June 8, 1903; d. Lin-Chow Tsieu, southern China, Feb. 25, 1930. Callisto was educated by the salesians, including Vicenzo Cimatti (1879–1965), who inspired Callisto's missionary spirit. Callisto entered the order in 1918, was professed in 1919, and fulfilled his dream of evangelizing foreign lands when he was sent to the mission in Macau (1924), then to Shanghai (China), and Timor (Indonesia), where he labored for two years. He returned to Shiu Chow, China, in March of 1929 and was ordained two months later in Shanghai by Luigi Versiglia (1873–1930). Thereafter he was assigned to the growing mission at Lin Chow.

Six months later he returned to Shiu Chow to report his progress to Bishop Louis versiglia, who decided to visit the mission. The party, including the Salesians and several young Chinese, was ambushed en route. One of the female catechists earlier had rebuffed an attacker's marriage proposal. When he showed his determination to take the aspiring nun by force, the priests intervened, were beaten, and shot. The bodies of the martyrs were recovered and buried at the door of the church of Saint Joseph in Lin Kong How. Pope John Paul II beatified Caravario on May 15, 1983 and canonized him on Oct. 1, 2000 as one of the 120 martyrs of China (see china, martyrs of, ss.).

Feast: Nov. 13 (Salesians).

Bibliography: g. bosio, Monsignor Versiglia e Don Caravario (Turin 1935). t. lewicki, "Ten kielich mam wype·nic« krwiafi": opowies«c« o pierwszych meficzennikach salezjan«skich (Warsaw 1985). Acta Apostolicae Sedis 78 (1986): 140–42. L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 21 (1983): 11.

[k. i. rabenstein]