Bruno Roberto Frigoli

Bruno Roberto Frigoli was born on 4 February 1926 in Ronchi dei Legionari, prov. Gorizia. His father was a lieutenant colonel in the Italian army; at the age of 17, Bruno and his brother followed his pro-fascist father into the army. He received a classical education, and then attended a military college. He was then commissioned as first lieutenant in the Italian army with the Alpini, the storied brigade which had fought in World War I. He took part in several dangerous missions, including (he later asserted) as part of the advance guard sent to explore an escape route for Mussolini as the Republic of Salò collapsed. When the war ended, Frigoli and other Italian officers attempted to escape, but was arrested by partisans on the border. They were confined to a prison at Sondrio, Italy, while they were tried for war crimes. His father was executed after a separate trial. Due to the intervention of a Catholic chaplain, Bruno was released, an escape that he would later believe was a miraculous intervention of God.

Afraid of consequences for his service under the Fascist regime, Frigoli decided to leave Italy. Emigrating to Argentina, he became a construction foreman under the Argentine government. He married a paesana from Italy named Tilly, who travelled to join him in Buenos Aires - among her wedding gifts was a small hotel in San Carlos de Bariloche, gifted to them by her uncle. They would have three children. Convinced by a friend to pursue gold mining in northern Bolivia, he left his construction business in Bariloche, Argentina, and went to the Beni area. When gold mining didn't work out, Frigoli managed a sawmill that his wife’s family had purchased in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and they determined to return to Italy.

In an episode in which he had to ask assistance to find some lost documents, he encountered three Assemblies of God missionaries, Pearl Estep, Flora Shafer, and Everett Hale. Something about the church meetings they ran caused him to return. On Good Friday, 3 April 1953, Bruno and his brother-in-law, Leonardo were in attendance when a visiting Swedish Salvation Army speaker preached on the Prodigal Son: both went forward at the altar call and prayed for salvation. One year later, Bruno received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at a church in La Paz, Bolivia.

Frigoli began preparing for ministry, became a Sunday School superintendent and pioneered a new assembly at the edge of the jungle. In the midst of this, his wife Tilly was killed in a car accident in which Bruno too suffered major injuries. He was flown back to Italy to recover, while his three children were placed with Tilly’s parents. He eventually returned to Bolivia, and he became a full-time pastor, being ordained in December 1961. The next year he attended Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri, where he met Frances Ruth nee Hiddema (a former Moody Bible Institute student who went as a missionary nurse to Bolivia in 1953). They were married on 18 June 1962 at Berean Bible Church in Wyoming. While there, he worked in the Spanish Literature Department of the AGUSA and preached in local churches, being advertised as 'former black shirt lieutenant' and 'once member of Mussolini's elite guard'. (The Herald-Palladium (Benton Harbor, MI) 9 May 1964: 5) In 1967, Frigoli was one of 38 Assemblies of God delegates to the Berlin World Congress on Evangelism. Frigoli was ordained in the AGUSA in October 1967, being sent in 1968 as missionary pastor of Evangelistic Center of the Assemblies of God in La Paz, Bolivia’s largest Protestant church, and administrator for the AG in Bolivia. In that role, he was instrumental in achieving the state recognition of pentecostal churches which had long been refused them, and in pioneering churches in often remote areas of Bolivia, such as Lake Titicaca. He served as national AG secretary before becoming general superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Bolivia. He also was in charge of a night Bible school in Bolivia and a Bible School for Aymara peoples, while Frances was Sunday School Director and president of the Bolivian Women's Missionary Association. Fran also ran an orphanage and gave vaccines to children at risk of whooping cough and measles. In 1973-74 he returned to the USA on delegation. In 1975, he was appointed coordinator of the AGUSA Foreign Mission Department Latin America evangelism program, based in Chile.

He served on various boards, including the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. He was variously pastor of the AG Church in Santa Cruz, lecturer in the Low Lands Bible Institute, and in various executive roles with the Confradernidad de las Asembleas di Dio de Sud America. The Frigolis served together as missionaries in Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina for 30 years. They also worked for LIFE Publishers.

The couple retired to Frances' family state, Michigan, to the town of Jenison. Frances passed away in July 2019, and Bruno passed away on 10 May 2020, in Grandville, Michigan. He is buried in Grandville Cemetery.

Frigoli’s story was featured in a Revivaltime booklet produced by C. M. Ward.

All five of Frigoli's children - Italo Frigoli (m. Sharon), Erica (m. Chris Grace), Paul Frigoli (m. Kristen), Christine (m. Roberto Meza), Wanda (m. Rich Ferguson, Peru, and Latin America Advanced School of Theology, LAAST) - went into missionary work. Bruno Italo Frigoli, Bruno's son, studied at Southwestern Assemblies of God College, worked in South America as a missionary. After marrying another missionary child, Sharon nee Spencer, in 1992 he and his wife Sharon founded 'Jesús única forma de vivir' (Jesus, the Only Way to Live) Church in Santiago, Chile. They also started the soccer club Hosanna, the first professional club in South America based on Christian values. They were sent as missionaries to Spain, where they were instrumental in extending gospel radio to Spain, establishing the Evangelistic Centre at Las Palmas, in expanding the work of Teen Challenge, and in cell-based church extension. Italo joined James Marocco's King's network of churches, which was expanding out of Hawa'ii. Their son, Bruno Frigoli III, pastored in King's Dallas, and then took over the church which their parents had planted in Chile in 1992, renamed 'Catedral del Rey'.

Sources:

Gohr, Glenn, 'From Fascism to Christ: Bruno Frigoli Fought for Mussolini, Found Christ, and Became an Assemblies of God Leader in Bolivia', Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Blog, This Week in AG History — June 18, 1972, https://ifphc.wordpress.com/?s=Italian.

“From the Alps to the Andes”, Pentecostal Evangel, 18 June 1972: 24.

Obituary, Frances Hiddema Frigoli, https://obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/grandrapids/name/frances-frigoli-obituary?id=9142305

Real Faith Podcast, Erica Grace – Mussolini’s Bodyguard Series, https://realfaith.org.au/erica-grace-mussolinis-bodyguard-series-part-1/.