Settimio Ferrazzetta

Settimio Arturo Ferrazzetta O.F.M. (Selva di Progno, Verona, 8 December 1924- Bissau, 26 January 1999) was an Italian-born Guinea-Bissauan Roman Catholic bishop.

He was ordained a priest at the Order of Friars Minor on 1 July 1951. In 1955 he went to Portuguese Guinea as a missionary, where he dedicated himself to health and educational activities. He first started a leprosary in Cumura.

After the independence of Guinea-Bissau, he was appointed the first bishop of the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Bissau, on 21 March 1977, being ordained on 19 June 1977. He continued his missionary activity, working for the promotion at the human, social and religious levels of the Guinea-Bissauans. Ferrazzetta achieved the respect and admiration of the population in general, not only the small Roman Catholic community, but also the Muslim and animist communities.

In 1998, during the armed tension between President João Bernardo Vieira and general Ansumane Mane, he worked as the mediator. He died soon afterwards, before the end of the hostilities, on 26 January 1999, aged 74 years old. His death was mourned as a great national loss. He was buried in the Bissau Cathedral.[1]