Mario Vergara

Mario Vergara (16 November 1910 – 24 May 1950) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions who was killed in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1950. He was beatified in 2014 after the recognition of his martyrdom.

Biography Mario Vergara was born on 16 November 1910 and was baptized on 20 November - a week after his birth. He was the last of nine children.

He entered the seminary in Aversa and studied there until the age of 17 when he was admitted to a seminary in Naples. It was there where his missionary vocation emerged. In 1929, he entered the seminary in Monza and he later received the tonsure and the minor orders by the Bishop of Aversa in 1932.

He was admitted into the novitiate of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in August 1933 and he was ordained to the priesthood on 26 August 1934 by the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster. By September that same year, he travelled to Burma to begin his missionary activities.

Vergara was entrusted with the district of Citaciò and the forests of Soku.

When World War II started, Vergara and other Italian missionaries were interned in a British concentration camp in India in 1941; he was kept there until the end of the war. On 24 May 1950, Vergara and Ko Lat met with a rebel leader to demand the release of another catechist who had been arrested; after interrogation, both were shot dead.

Beatification The Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the cause of beatification which commenced on 23 October 2001. This bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God. Pope Francis approved his and Isidoro Ngei Ko Lat's martyrdom on 9 December 2013, thus, allowing for their beatification. Cardinal Angelo Amato represented the pope at the beatification on 24 May 2014.