Alberic Crescitelli
Alberico Crescitelli (1863–1900), Chinese name Guo Xide, was an Italian Catholic priest and missionary to China. Born in Italy on 30 June 1863, Alberico Crescitelli entered the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in 1880 and was ordained a priest on 4 June 1887. The following year, he went to China and began work in the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Shensi (now Diocese of Hanzhong) in southern Shaanxi.
Crescitelli was believed to have been killed in the Boxer Rebellion. Crescitelli's confreres, who had known him well and for many years, started his beatification cause in 1908, only eight years after his death. The testimony provided by the confreres was unanimous about the holiness of Crescitelli's life.
At the Vatican, in St. Peter's Basilica on 18 February 1951, Pope Pius XII declared Alberico Crescitelli "blessed." The Pope's speech was memorable, especially for the passage in which he described Father Crescitelli's martyrdom:
In the Martyrology
- July 21 Saint Alberico Crescitelli, PIME priest, martyr of China