EVIDENCE MODELLING EXCELLENCE

Gaetano Nicosia:
 the "angel of the lepers" in China. Father Gaetano Nicosia, a Salesianmissionary, arrived in Macau in 1963
to attend to about a hundred lepers who had takenrefuge on the island of Coloane. Left to their fate, their
situation was dramatic, characterizedby terrible hygiene, violence and suicide. Born in Italy in 1915, the
priest already spokeChinese, having begun his missionary work among Chinese communities since 1935,
inHong Kong, Macau and in the Chinese province of Guangdong, from where he was expelledby the
communists in 1950.

When the bishop of Macau asked the Salesians for help in attending to the lepers of
Coloane, Father Nicosa gave his availability to live with them, as did Saint Damien of
Molokai. From 1963 to 2011, for 48 years, he started his life with the lepers, transforming
that place. It managed to bring nurses and doctors to the island, it provided healthy and
varied food. It restored houses by introducing electricity and drinking water; it created a
farm and provided vocational training for each person to exercise a trade; He built a
school and a church.

In 2011, when the already very old priest left that mission, there was one left with Hansen’s
disease. The testimony of the Salesian’s life led most members of his community to embrace
the Christian faith. Father Nicosia died in Hong Kong on November 6 at the age of 102.