diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

Simeone Angelo Felice Volonteri was the son of a Milanese druggist.Born and baptized the same day, 6 June 1831, he studied in the OblateCollege of Rho, where one of the missionary Oblates was his maternal uncle.It was his classmate, Eugenio Biffi, future "Apostle of two continents," whoinspired Simeone to spread the faith to pagan lands. Winning a scholarship tothe archdiocesan seminary of Milan, he began his theological studies there in1853. He was ordained to the priesthood and said his first mass on 7 February1857. He first arrived in Hongkong on 7 February 1860, where he dedicatedhimself to hospital work while studying the Chinese language. A few yearslater, he baptized the daughter of Corporal James Bracken and Elizabeth JaneMcBride. The little child was named Josephine and, at her mother's death,was taken and educated by the Canossan Sisters whom she had hoped to joinwhen she was 14 years old, escaping from the house of Mr. Taufer, who hademployed her as a housemaid. Josephine, years later, became Rizal's wifeand widow.36For one reason or another, Rizal was drawn to Bishop Volonteri with theChinese beard. He was obviously a great man, but especially a true man ofGod. He never tried to flatter his new Filipino friend, just as the latter neverembellished his ideas when putting them on paper to describe the prelate.Volonteri called the Philippines the "earthly paradise," perhaps withmore subjective judgment than anything else. But other Catholicmissionaries to the Far East felt the same way about Rizal's country. The firsttwelve missionaries sent to China by the Sacred Congregation for thePropagation of the Faith had passed by Manila in 1696. And they, too, hadbeen in admiration of the hospitality offered them. They reported it to Europewith the same enthusiasm as Volonteri in conversation with Rizal about twohundred years later. The Propaganda in Rome had taken note and when it sent .Cardinal de Toumon to China, they recommended him to Field MarshallTomas de Endaya in Manila. This "earthly paradise" suggested to AbbeSiddotti, a member of de Toumon's entourage, the idea of a majorinterdiocesan seminary for the formation of a native clergy for Asia. Not onlythat, the Philippines had been a source of help for the PropagandaProcurator's office in Canton, as well as of the missionaries who depended onit." And missionaries sent to work in the other countries of Asia and Oceaniawere supported by their houses in the Philippines which also welcomed themin the first Catholic country in Asia, the first in Volonteri's time, when theyhad the opportunity to rest from their labors in the Lord's vineyard.Surrounded by pagan nations, the missionaries in Asia found in the tropicalislands of the Archipelago the delights of Eden.8