KIDNAPPED, KILLED The Martyr of Mo-Si-Ho

The body of Fr. Gratian Leonardelli, the twenty-five-year-old Franciscan missionary kidnapped and killed by Communist brigands last July, has been recovered by his fellow missionaries and brought back to Kichow. Father Leonardelli was raised 40 the priesthood, at Trent, in June, 1936, and sailed for China in October. He was taken prisoner at Tang-fong, a port on the Blue River, when Reds invaded that district last July.
The Reds then sent a note to the Catholic mission, demanding a ransom; they asked for 500 army uniforms, 1,000 pairs of puttees, watches, fountain pens, and a supply of medicine. Later they asked for 80,000 dollars, enclosing with their demand a letter of Fr. Leonardelli, undated, in which he mentioned that his Chinese servant had been stoned to death by the Communists after an unsuccessful break for liberty. Regarding the Reds' demand, he told his confreres to do as they liked, adding: "But 1 am certain that one of these days they will make roe a present of a bullet in the head."
The Journey in Vain
One of the other Franciscans of the Kichow mission, Fr. Erminio Panizza, begged to be allowed to go to the bandits' rendezvous to try to persuade them to release their captive. He started but before reaching his object was stopped by a Chinese mandarin, who said that the ground should first be prepared. Father Panizza thereupon got in touch with the brigand chief and with the help of a Chinese go-between exchanged letters and presents. Then, on September 29, he set out for the bandits' hidieg place and spent nine days in the midst of the Reds. He was there only a day or so when he learned that Fr. Leonardelli was already dead, that he had been shot on July 24, at a place called Mo-si-ho, midway between Macheng and Lotien.
After some more bargaining with Ling, the bandit chief, and after getting exact information about the burial place of Fr. Leonardelli from the very soldier who did the killing, Fr. Panizza left the Reds' stronghold, happy and thankful to Heaven to get away alive. and another missionary then made a trip of four days to the place on the Hupehslionan frontier where the Reds had buried Fr. Leonardelli. They recovered the body, and brought it back to Kichow, arriving there on October 18, exactly one year. to the day, after Fr. Leonardelli and his companions departed from Trent.