Name Pietro Pappagallo Role Priest | ||
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Parents Maria Tommasa Guastamacchia, Michele Pappagallo | ||
2coro scuola elementare don pietro pappagallo
Pietro Pappagallo (Terlizzi (Bari) June 28, 1888 – Rome, March 24, 1944) was a Catholic priest and an Italian anti-fascist who assisted victims of Nazism and Fascism in Rome during World War II.
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Biography
After coming to Rome in 1925, Don Pappagallo was a member of the College of Beneficed Clergy of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and chaplain to the Sisters of the Child Jesus on the Via Urbana. He was also assistant pastor of the Basilica of St. John Lateran and had served as secretary to Cardinal Bonaventura Cerretti, the Archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore.
During the German occupation of Rome, which lasted from September 1943 to June 1944, Pappagallo helped soldiers, partisans, allies, Jews and others wanted by the regime. Betrayed by a German spy Gino Crescentini, Pappagallo was arrested on January 29, 1944 by the SS, as part of a campaign against the Roman resistance. Witnesses reported that Pappagallo shared his meals with fellow prisoners who had not received food. Sentenced to death, he was executed on March 24, 1944 at the Ardeatine Caves.