Vatican City, Jan 31, 2011 / 09:57 am
Pope Benedict met with seminarians from Ethiopia on Jan. 29, encouraging them to continue in their path toward “sanctity.”
On Saturday morning, the Pope received priests and seminarians of the Pontifical Ethiopian College to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of the seminary's 19th century patron, St. Justin de Jacobis.
Born in Italy in 1800, St. Justin de Jacobis was a missionary to Ethiopia who – despite persecution from the local church – succeeded in building local outreaches to the poor and schools for training future priests in the country. The saint is credited with founding the beginnings of the Ethiopian Catholic Church and was canonized by Pope Paul VI in October 1975.
Pope Benedict said that St. Justin “crowned his fruitful contribution to the religious and civil life of the Abyssinian peoples with the gift of his own life, silently restored to God after much suffering and persecution.”