Ernesto Giampiccoli

born at Fonzaso, Belluno, Italy 28 June 1869, Ernesto Giampiccoli was the son of an official of the Ministry of Finance.

Education

Received his early schooling at Belluno, Rovigo, and L’Aquila due to his father’s frequent transfers. He attended the first classes of the ginnasio in Venice and completed his secondary education at Florence, where he graduated with distinction in 1888. In Florence he was a classmate of the son of the pastor of the Franco-Swiss Church—a friendship that proved decisive in his spiritual journey.

Through this connection he met Emilio Comba, began reading the Bible with his mother and sister, and was soon joined in conversion by his three younger brothers.

He first enrolled in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Florence, then attended the Waldensian Faculty of Theology for a year before continuing theological study at the Academy of Geneva and the University of Edinburgh, where he undertook pastoral care for Italian emigrants in Scotland.

Ministry

Ordained in September 1893, he was appointed assistant pastor of the Waldensian Church in Rome, serving under Matteo Prochet and Carlo Giovanni Daniele Buffa. During his three years there he displayed marked gifts as preacher and lecturer, and became active in the Desanctis Circle, the Young Men’s Christian Association, and the Pro Armenia Committee.

In 1894 he married Enrichetta Rostagno, sister of his colleague and friend Giovanni Rostagno; they had five children: Guglielmo (b.1895), Maria (b.1897), Elisa (1899–1988; later wife of missionary Roberto Augusto Coïsson), Renato (b.1902), and Guido Adolfo (b.1904). The same year he volunteered as captain in the Italian Red Cross.

Appointed second pastor of the Waldensian Church of Turin in 1897, he was among the promoters of the San Donato Chapel in Corso Principe Oddone (1901), personally supervising the construction and composing a special liturgy later used as a model for the 1912 Synod.

He continued in Turin as chief pastor (1906–1913). His long tenure allowed him to found the House of Deaconesses at the Evangelical Hospital, oversee the revision of the Waldensian Hymnal, and preside over civic and religious celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversaries of both the Waldensian emancipation (1848) and the Turin congregation (1849). His ministry was defined by the conviction that “our purpose is evangelisation … the positive preaching of the Gospel to all who do not know it—Protestant, Israelite, or Catholic alike.”

Leadership

In 1913 he became President of the Committee for Evangelisation and, following its dissolution in 1915, was elected Moderator of the Waldensian Table, the church’s governing body representing both the historic valley parishes and the newer congregations throughout Italy. He directed the reorganisation of the denomination during this phase of expansion, represented it in international assemblies, and promoted the transfer of the Waldensian Faculty of Theology from Florence to Rome.

Later Life and Death

His later years were overshadowed by personal tragedy: the death of his eldest son Guglielmo in World War I, the subsequent loss of his wife after years of illness, and his own declining health. Despite the devoted care of his second wife, Margherita Ribet, he died at Torre Pellice on 10 August 1921. 

Sources

Comba, Emilio. Storia dei Valdesi nell’Italia Moderna (Firenze, 1897).

Falchi, M., 'Ernesto Giampiccoli',  La Luce n. 33, 17 August 1921, and La Luce (Torino), various issues, 1893–1915.

Giampiccoli, Franco, ‘Ernesto Giampiccoli (1869–1921) moderatore negli anni della Grande Guerra,’ in Susanna Peyronel Rambaldi, Gabriella Ballesio and Matteo Rivoira (eds.), La Grande Guerra e le Chiese Evangeliche in Italia (1915–1918) (Torino: Claudiana, 2016).

Rostagno, Giovanni. Memorie di un Pastore Valdese (Torino, 1934).

Reforni, Alberto. 'Il Pastore della Evangelizzazione,' Bollettino della Chiesa Valdese, April 1930.