Ettore Strappaveccia

Ettore Strappaveccia was born in Camerino (Macerata) on 1 April 1886, the son of a labouring family. His mother's name was Assunta. Having moved to Rome, he worked hard to elevate himself to the role of a builder, with a small portfolio of properties, including one on Via Adige (in those days considered on the north eastern edge of the city). It was in Rome that he met his future wife, Lidia, who was the means by which Ettore was converted. Lidia and her sister in law became involved in a pentecostal group with such fervour that Ettore sought to draw them away, an effort which resulted in repeated arguments. When these had persisted for some time, Strappaveccia is reported to have declared that "io non ci credo finché lo Spirito Santo non mi avrà sbattuto a terra." (I will not believe it until the Holy Spirit knocks me to the ground!). He later testified to having be cast to the ground "like Saul of Tarsus", projecting him on the path of a profound conversion to Christ, baptism, and then filling with the Spirit. Shortly afterwards, he modified the cellar in one of his buildings (via Adige 20) for use as a meeting hall - it was formally opened for services on 1 March 1922.

The next year, when Giacomo Lombardi [qv] visited the church, he appointed Strappaveccia its overseer. The community grew steadily. In 1919, Luigi Arcangeli, was converted, who married in a young believer from La Spezia, Elvira Rocchi. The small house of the Arcangeli family, located in via Clitunno 10 a few steps from via Adige, became well known as one of the centres for clandestine services during the period of persecution. The Ceccarini and Alessandro Arcangeli families also lived in the same building, as did Eliana Rustici was soon added. Luigi Arcangeli was soon elected vice-pastor, and long remained so. Others to receive the pentecostal testimony included Nicola Pantaleone Laudisa and his family.

Like many of his generation and provincial origin, Strappaveccia was self-educated, drawing on personal study of the bible, and his personal interest in the Church of the first century. Despite this, and despite not having a noted preaching gift, his simple, powerful, personal preaching spoke to many, and the church grew markedly, and became connected to the other small works which were multiplying throughout Italy. The management group of the church (with the assistance of Angela Gariglio Paretti and Fiordisa Laudisa) handled correspondence throughout the country, and organized the national conferences of 1928 and 1929. In 1930, Strappaveccia was made Pastor of the “Congregazione Cristiana Pentecostale” in Rome, the work begun by Giacomo Lombardi on his first return trip. This was the first Pentecostal church in Italy to be recognised by the State in 1931, even as the Catholic Church was increasing pressure on the state to suppress 'protestant sects'. (Ebner 2010, p.198) At the same time, applications were made for five other pastors in other parts of Italy, but these were rejected.

This left Strappaveccia in something of a conundrum, the 'unorganised' nature of the movement militating against the idea that an individual or a single organisation could ascribe to themselves sole official status. The Church, however, grew rapidly. As Baptist missionary Stefano Testa reported,

"In Rome I attended a great congregation of Pentecostalists [by one estimate the congregation was over 200], packed like sardines in an ill-ventilated sub-cellar, like a catacomb excavated under a building. Several baptisms took place that night in my presence. One of the converts there was the engineer who rebuilt the campanile of the Catholic Church of San Lorenzo and collected the money for the work among his friends. Some of these congregations in Sicily march to the brook near their town, singing hymns to baptize their new converts." (PE 4 April 1931, p. 5)

By then, meetings were under supervision by fascist intelligence, who report that the room was bare (ie. not adorned with statues), the white of the walls interrupted only by the painting of a large Bible, and the verse: "Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations" (Psalm 105:1).

The promulgation of the Circolare Buffarini Guidi in 1935 led immediately to the revocation of Strappaveccia's ministerial status; the premises at via Adige were sealed by the police headquarters, and any form of Pentecostal assembly was also prohibited in private. In 1935, the Church was divided not only by external pressure but by internal divisions over perfectionism. Domenico Zaccardi from Castel del Giudice (CB), was introduced to the church by his paesano Antonio Serlenga, who had preached the gospel to him in 1930. Zaccardi rapidly found himself in favour as a speaker, opportunities for which arose because at that time freedom of preaching was divided amongst various leaders. His repeated calls for a rigid and inflexible Christian morality, raised an easy enthusiasm amongst the youth. The obsessive appeal to perfection, and to the incorruptibility of the Christian became almost assumed as the cause of salvation, and no longer its effect. This resulted in the formation of an elite group which propounded such ideas.

The division became inevitable when the leadership of the Zaccardi group accused Ettore Strappaveccia of dubious morality. Despite the fact that the accusations were never proven by concrete facts, the de facto leader of the Rome community stood down, at the same time as the fascist government revoked his permission to preside as a minister. The Church was disbanded under the 1935 persecutions - the congregation gathered around Roberto Bracco while Strappaveccia and his colleague were forcibly repatriated. Strappaveccia protested, writing to Mussolini, declaring: 'Your Excellency - 5000 Italian citizens of pentecostal faith reclaim their liberty. Persecuted in every fashion, they have struck fear into the heart of a government that seemed invincible.'

The church moved into clandestine house meetings, meeting in three large groups: one organized around Umberto Gorietti, Luigi Arcangeli, Attilio Pagano, Gioacchino Toppi and Giuseppe Giulivi; a second group meeting in the S. Giovanni in Laterano district, which had been planted by Giacomo Lombardi but grew around the tireless evangelistic work of Quirino Pizzini, Ernesto Di Biagio, Domenico Provvedi and Salvatore Gemelli and the teaching (transmitted by text) of Giuseppe Petrelli. These two groups reunited towards the end of 1944, after the fall of Fascism. The third group, led by Domenico Zaccardi and Antonio Serlenga, and which had its historical headquarters in via Bradano 8, remained completely isolated although there was, in 1946, an attempt at rapprochement, unfortunately, unsuccessful. After the advent of the Americans, services from 1945 were held first at the Methodist church in via Firenze and immediately afterwards in the YMCA conference room in Piazza Indipendenza three times a week. From 1946, the meetings (now too large for these locations) moved to a confetti factory in via Nomentana, made available by Cacciotti. It was here that Ernest Williams, then president of the Assemblies of God in the USA, visited, and was profoundly moved at what he saw as a modern version of catacombs Christianity.

Meanwhile, Strappaveccia, persecuted both by Fascists outside and Zaccardian devotees with, withdrew from the movement and church to which he had given his all. Attending a Waldensian Church, keeping his head down, he began to reengage only after he had an experience of providential protection. On June 25, 1944, he memoir noted, the Germans invaded his region to take revenge for the killing of several German troops by the partisans. They came to Strappaveccia's house several times, but completely overlooked him. In his panic, he felt God say to him, "Do not be afraid, I am there to protect you and to free you", and then felt an overwhelming sense of peace. He wrote to a friend who had prayed for his return for many years, seeking to re-enter the church.

He was to be of great use to the community - being instrumental a few years later in securing for the church a bombed out building on Via dei Bruzi, near Porta Maggiore. It became the centre for ADI worship, instruction and ministerial training for decades thereafter. In 1956 Strappaveccia fell seriously ill, passing away in October 1957. Francesco Toppi was among those by his bedside: "It was at the end of his earthly existence. We found him serene, smiling and praising the Lord, repeating many texts from the psalms and in particular the first seven verses of Psalm 32, then praising the Lord he greeted and embraced the brothers present and shortly after, he went into the arms of his Savior whom he had loved and served."

Sources:

Ebner, Michael R., Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy, New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Toppi, Francesco, 'Ettore Strappaveccia'. http://www.giancarlorinaldiblog.it/mdocs-posts/strappaveccia-ettore/