Eugenio Massi (; 13 August 1875 – 10 December 1944) was an Italian Catholic missionary prelate and archbishop of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Taiyuan The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Taiyuan ( la, Taeiuenen(sis), ) is an archdiocese located in the city of Taiyuan (Shanxi) in China. History * June 17, 1890: Established as Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Shansi 山西北境 from the Apostoli ...

from 1910 to 1916 and apostolic administrator of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hankou The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hankou ( la, Hancheuvensis, ) is a Latin Rite Metropolitan archdiocese, based in Hankou, Wuhan, Hubei, China. Its archiepiscopal see is the Cathedral of St. Joseph, in Hankou, Wuhan. It is since 1961, due to th ...

from 1927 to 1944.

Biography

Eugenio Massi was born in

Monteprandone Monteprandone ( nap, Munneprannù) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Marche, located about southeast of Ancona and about northeast of Ascoli Piceno. It is the birthplace of James of the Marc ...

Province of Ascoli Piceno The province of Ascoli Piceno ( it, Provincia di Ascoli Piceno) is a province in the Marche region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ascoli Piceno, and the province is bordered by the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Province of Fermo to the north ...

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

, on 13 August 1875. He was ordained a priest on 20 February 1898. That same year, he was sent to preach in

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

, China. On 15 February 1910, he was appointed archbishop of the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

, and was transferred to the

in 1925. In December 1944, the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

carried out a strategic bombing of

Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers wher ...

controlled by the

Wang Jingwei regime The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...

. On December 10, during the air raid in Hankou, the US military mistakenly bombed the , and Eugenio Massi was killed at the age of 69.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eugenio, Massi 1875 births 1944 deaths People from Ascoli Piceno Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Italian Roman Catholic bishops 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China Deaths by American airstrikes during World War II Civilians killed in World War II