1900 - Albericus Crescitelli

August 21, 1900

Yanziban, Shaanxi

Albericus Crescitelli.

Albericus Crescitelli was born in the southern Italian town of Altavilla on June 30, 1863. His father was the town pharmacist. As a young man Crescitelli was excused from the compulsory military service at the time after being declared physically unfit. He instead joined the Catholic Foreign Missionary Society of Milan, studying Latin, philosophy, and theology. In the summer of 1883, Crescitelli’s father and sister were killed in a violent earthquake. After a period of mourning Crescitelli dedicated himself to the service of God, and he was ordained a priest at the age of 25.

Crescitelli was accepted by the Milan Mission and left to north China four months after his ordination in 1888. After 132 days at sea from Marseilles to Shanghai, then another journey to Wuhan, Crescitelli was already exhausted from his travels. Yet much more was to come. Travel in 19th century China bore no resemblance to today. Crescitelli, and another new missionary Vincenzo Colli, departed from Wuhan on March 30, 1888. Their boat slowly inched its way up the Han River, arriving in Shaanxi almost five gruelling months later.

Soon after arriving in Shanxi, Crescitelli won respect as a hard worker and servant. He never complained and constantly helped the local Catholics. Crescitelli wrote:

“Any place where you can bless and console a soul, where the people are poorest, where there is much pain and suffering…is a place of honour for a minister of the church…. My heart tells me that I am where I belong, where God wants me, and I am happy.”[1]

Although he was responsible for the spiritual health of 1,000 Catholics living in seven villages, Crescitelli had the heart of an evangelist and longed for more Chinese to believe the good news. In 1900 the Italian missionary was transferred to the remote county of Ningqiang, a wild place high among the mountains. Because of its isolation, Ningqiang had become a nest of Boxer activity. Crescitelli sensed the danger, but told his loved ones that he was prepared to face whatever came his way:

“Who knows how it will go in this distant district. At any rate, life and death are both in the hands of God: not a leaf drops that God does not will…. Be of good cheer and don’t worry about me. I am in the hands of God and I am happy. My guardian angel is watching over me!”[2]

On August 20, 1900, a local official took Crescitelli into his home under the guise of protecting him. After a pre-arranged signal was given, dozens of violent men gathered outside the house and demanded the missionary be handed over to them. The official mockingly told Crescitelli to flee out the back door into the mountains, but the Italian knelt down and prayed. His attackers quickly surrounded him, breathing threats of violence. Albericus Crescitelli asked them, “What have I done to you? If you have something against me, some accusation to make, speak; take me to the authorities.” Their only response was

“a fierce blow to his left arm, almost severing it, and then another directly to his face, breaking open his nose and his lips. Dazed by the blows of the clubs and by his wounds, he was at first dragged, and then because of his large body, they force a catechumen to carry him on his shoulders. Finally, after tying his hands and feet to a pole, they carried him like an animal on the way to the butcher.”[3]

Crescitelli was taken to the market town of Yanzibian, where he was beaten and scorned throughout the night, causing him to pass out. When he was fully conscious, the brave Italian prayed for his attackers, who spent the night playing cards and drinking. According to one account, at about noon the following day (August 21), Crescitelli was “humiliated and tortured very cruelly. The Boxers bayoneted him to death, dismembered his body, throwing his arms, legs and head into the river. He became a martyr at the age of 37.”[4]

A century after his martyrdom the Chinese government, not content that their forefathers had murdered and mutilated Crescitelli, issued a vile slander against the priest, claiming he had raped young Catholic girls on the eve of their weddings, as well as stealing from the people. Anthony Lam Sui-ki, an expert on Catholicism in China, noted that even the county annals from the time make no mention of Crescitelli’s involvement in any such vile activities.[5] On the contrary, all records suggest he was a much-loved man of God who lived a humble and sacrificial life for the people of Shaanxi.

1. Mariagrazia Zambon, Crimson Seeds: Eighteen PIME Martyrs (trans. Steve Baumbusch. Detroit: PIME World Press, 1997), 41.
2. Zambon, Crimson Seeds, 43-44.
3. Zambon, Crimson Seeds, 46.
4. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 90.
5. UCAN (November 15, 2000).