Dal Canton, Angelo

Angelo Dal Canton was born on January 20, 1882 at Quero, in the diocese of Feltre, in the Alpine province of Belluno, Italy. He attended the seminary in his own diocese until he was close to ordination. In 1905, he followed his missionary vocation by entering the Consolata Institute where he was ordained a priest in 1907. That same year he left for the vicariate of Nyeri. After working in Kikuyuland, he was chosen by Bishop Perlo in 1914 to lead the missionary expedition to the Kaffa region of Ethiopia. He reached southern Ethiopia after a difficult journey through the Northern Frontier District (NFD), but after ten months he had to return to Moyale, Kenya, where he remained for about three years, doing missionary work with Anselmo Jeantet, on of the two Consolata brothers to do missionary work in the NFD. In 1918 he returned to Nyeri and after some years he returned to Italy, where he served in his own diocese. He died in Turin on October 24, 1952.

This article, received in 2005, was reprinted with permission from* Christianity among the Nomads: The Catholic Church in Northern Kenya*, by Paul Tablino, © copyright 2004 by St. Paul Communications / Daughters of St. Paul, Nairobi, Kenya.