Justin de Jacobis

Saint Justin de Jacobis was born on October 9, 1800, in San Fele in southern Italy. As a young man he entered the Congregation of the Mission in Naples, professed vows in 1820, and was ordained a priest in 1824. Formed in the Vincentian spirit of humble service, he became a wise superior and showed fearless charity during the cholera epidemic in Naples in 1836–1837. In 1839 he was sent as the first Prefect Apostolic of Ethiopia, beginning a lifetime of missionary labor among the peoples of Ethiopia and what is now Eritrea. With deep respect for local tradition, he celebrated the liturgy in the local language according to the Alexandrian Rite, and he founded schools and seminaries to form a native clergy—laying early foundations for the Ethiopian Catholic and Eritrean Catholic Churches. Though he reluctantly accepted episcopal consecration in secret, his gentle perseverance drew many to Christ even amid opposition, imprisonment, and exile. He died of fever on July 31, 1860, at Hebo in Eritrea. He is venerated as a steadfast apostle of Abyssinia and is patron of San Fele. His feast day is July 31.