Martyr in China

Chapter 2. God's Call

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Parma, April 4 1931: newly ordained priests, Frs. Botton (first on the left), Giannini and Azzolini

Several years later, thinking back to the times when they attended primary school together, Gino’s sister Maria said of him: “Gino was just like all the other boys”. As a small child he was spoiled by his sisters and he could have grown up fickle and selfish, but this did not happen: the education imparted by his mother, and a family life with many brothers and sisters with whom he had to share everything, had formed a person who was good and generous towards everyone.

One day he was knocked down by his father’s cart and almost killed, yet he managed to crawl out from under the vehicle without as much as a scrape: a miraculous episode in the eyes of onlookers.

Gino made his first communion when he was six years old. During Lent he would go into the countryside where he would sit under an enormous fig tree and sing the hymn “Stabat Mater” (“At the Cross her Station keeping”) that everyone sang in church during the Stations of the Cross.

In his heart he felt a desire to do something for the Lord: he was thinking about becoming a priest, but not in the same Congregation as his brother. Nor did he feel attracted by the Franciscan Friars or the Servites of the Shrine of Monte Berico in Vicenza.

It was his brother who sent him to the Xaverian Missionaries in Vicenza, after a chance meeting on a train with Fr. Pietro Uccelli, the Rector of that house.

My departure means yet another sacrifice for you; but since you have already offered everything to the Lord, this one will not be too heavy to bear…Our hearts will always be united. I need nothing except that you be happy for me. 
Fr. John Botton

In the autumn of 1920, Gino traveled to Vicenza with his father in their two-wheeled cart and there he joined the Xaverian Institute. His father went back home full of enthusiasm and consoled his wife by telling her that Gino was in a good place and would surely feel at home there.

And Gino did settle down in the community. There was time for study, play and even boat trips on the canal that ran along the front of the villa. Father Uccelli spoke enthusiastically to the students about the missions in China and the boys would dream about going to that mysterious country. Father Uccelli had the habit of placing a piece of bread or a very small bottle of oil before a statue of Saint Joseph to remind the saint that the community needed a constant supply of these commodities. Thanks to the intercession of Saint Joseph, Divine Providence sent what was needed every day to feed fifty hungry mouths in the form of a sack of bread, a flask of oil or a cartload of wood.

One day, Gino saw a strange visitor arrive: though the man was dressed like a priest, it was impossible to know if he was a priest or a seminarian; Gino was unable to decide how old the man was. What immediately struck him was the fact that the man was frighteningly thin.

He saw Father Uccelli accompany him to the door and greet him with a generous smile. Gino, suspicious, could not contain his curiosity and boldly asked the rector if that “creature” was thinking of joining them and he urged the rector not to accept him. Father Uccelli smiled and said nothing. In a letter dated 6 March 1936, Botton himself recalls the incident: “Galvan, meantime, was on his way back home happy because he had been admitted to the Xaverians, blissfully unaware of what a rascal boy had said about him behind his back”. Father Andrea Galvan went on to become a great missionary.

In September 1924, Gino moved from Vicenza to Parma for novitiate. The large house in Parma was the “headquarters” of the Congregation of Saint Francis Xavier for the Foreign Missions, founded by the young Guido Maria Conforti in 1895, when he was just an 30 year old priest. The Founder would later become bishop of Ravenna and, not long after, of Parma.  At the same time, the community was growing and the young students were becoming priests and leaving for China.

When Gino arrived in Parma, Guido Conforti was still alive; the Founder used to visit the Institute once a week to keep in contact with the young students he had entrusted to the care of a loyal collaborator. Gino met Conforti on several occasions and was often called to his study for a chat.

Gino was a theology student, when the Founder returned full of enthusiasm from a visit to China in December 1928. At their first meeting, he told his students: “I saw the harvest with my own eyes! Of all the peoples of the earth, the Chinese are, perhaps, the most well-disposed to the Christian message. If only there were more missionaries, more catechists…”.

The Founder’s words had a deep impact on the young missionaries, and they had to restrain their own enthusiastic desire to leave immediately for the missions.

In September 1929, Gino was sent to Vicenza as assistant to the young students. He was cordial, vivacious, and the life and soul of the recreations.  At the same time, however, he demanded that the students observe the rule of discipline and apply themselves diligently to study.  Besides prayer, he knew that a good missionary had to be culturally prepared and trained in self-sacrifice.

He returned to Parma in June of the following year, where he resumed his theology studies; he was ordained priest by the Founder himself on April 4, 1931, in what was the last ordination carried out by Bishop Conforti before his death on November 5 that same year.

Father John took part in the mourning of the entire Xaverian family and the diocese and he was a witness to the many tributes that the city of Parma paid to its bishop.  It was commonly said that a saint had died. The bishop of Cremona, John Cazzini, who had been invited to speak at the funeral, marveled at the scenes he witnessed: he began by saying: “Is this a funeral or a victory celebration?”

After his ordination to the priesthood, Father John was sent as vice-rector to the junior seminary in Grumone, in the province of Cremona; a year later he returned to Parma where he was assigned to missionary animation. Finally, after a wait of three years, he was given permission to leave for China. 

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