Giovanni Daniele Armand-Ugon

Born in Torre Pellice, Armand-Ugon was the son of Jean Jacques and Anne nee Eynard, peasants.

He was educated at the Waldensian College in Torre Pellice, and in 1870 he entered the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Florence. In October 1871, called to the army, he volunteered in the artillery for a year, to avoid the five years of compulsory military service.

In June 1873, after completing his third year of studies, his academic excellence saw him granted a scholarship to study abroad. In October 1873, the Tavola sent him as assistant in Pomaretto to the pastor Pietro Lantaret. He found it a difficult situation, which he tried to remedy through the development of home-based services and visits to remote hamlets. He also devoted himself to teaching Latin, grammar, arithmetic, geography and history. He proposed the improvement of church buildings and the opening of an evening school, in particular for the young workers of the textile factory of nearby Perosa. He grew this school to an attendance of about seventy children (aged between seven and fifteen years of age).

Ordained pastor in 1875, he was assistant to Lantaret in Pomaretto until 1877, before being sent by the Tavola to South America. This was in response to the urgent request of the Waldensian colony of Rosario Oriental, which had had no pastor since 1875 (after the transfer of Giovanni Pietro Michelin Salomon to the USA).

Armand-Ugon and his new wife Alice Rivoir (they married on 20 October of that year) arrived in Rosario (shortly after renamed Colonia Valdense) on November 26, 1877, at a turbulent time: a military coup, supported by the great merchants, the landowners and foreign investors, sought the opening and modernization of the country. During this time Armand-Ugon became a leading unifier in the colony.  On March 24, 1878, Armand-Ugon led a general assembly of Uruguayan Waldensians, attended by more than a hundred participants.

He pastored Colonia Valdense from 1878 to 1919; from 1880 to 1882 he also took care of the new community of Cosmopolita-Artilleros. In the following years other families settled near Cosmopolita, forming the nuclei of Tarariras, Riachuelo, San Pedro, between which Armand-Ugon rode long distances on horseback.

Armand-Ugon was active in politics and education, both local and regional, dealing with the Uruguayan President's office to protect the Colonia's interests and acting as an intermediary with the Tavola's Evangelization Committee in order to achieve the autonomy of the church of Colonia Valdense, obtaining its legal status in 1884. In the first year of his pastorate, he opened eight primary schools in the Colonia and its surroundings, which enrolled some 180 students, and he raised the support for these by soliciting the local churches and the Government. Armand-Ugon was also an active builder of cultural assets. With Thomas B. Wood (MEC) he planned and built the Lyceum, which was later named after him. Though many students were Catholics, both Waldensian pastors acted as teachers for a six-year course which provided matriculation pathways towards university studies, teaching and commerce. Initially overseen by the Methodist Church, the Mesa Valdese and the Consistory of the Colonia's Waldensian Church, after Wood's departure in 1896 the school was run solely by the Waldensians. Armand-Ugon became its director, having to face an increasingly difficult financial situation. He left office in 1905, but had due to staff absences to return in 1915. In 1926 the school was taken over by the State.

During the ministry of Armand-Ugon several new buildings were built: the Waldensian 'temples' at La Paz (completed in 1893), Colonia Valdense (completed in 1898) and the adjacent presbytery, a post office and two schools. Most of his work, however, was in consolidating the Waldensian colonies, ensuring the incorporation of the groups of migrants that periodically reached Uruguay from France, Switzerland and Italy, dealing with internal conflicts, and supporting collaboration with other Protestants of the Rio Plate area. The high birth rate in his communities, moreover, stimulated their expansion, stimulating 'internal migration' to Argentina. In 1890, he directed the purchase of land for a new 'colony' at Ombues de Lavalle, and oversaw the first communities in Argentina, in the province of Santa Fe (San Carlos, Colonia Belgrano) and Buenos Aires (Colonia Iris). Aware of the importance of having a permanent Pastor who could itinerate among these, Armand-Ugon asked the Tavola Valdese several times for an evangelist pastor, resulting in the arrival of Pietro Bounous in Cosmopolita in 1882.

On the 'emeritus' list from 1919, in 1927 he made another trip to the Waldensian valleys and to Palestine. He died in Colonia Valdense on August 23, 1929. The church of Colonia Valdense constructed a retirement home, approved by the Rioplatense Synod in 1930. The structure opened in June 1933.

Publications by J. D. Armand-Ugon.

Armand-Ugon, J. D., Catecismo evangelico (traduzione del catechismo).

---, La propaganda religiosa, Conferencia leida en el Rosario Oriental, el 22 de Julio de 1880, Montevideo, Imprenta de El Ferro Carryl, 1880.

---, Los reformadores y la Historia, Conferencia leida en el Rosario Oriental, el 12 de Agosto de 1880, Montevideo, Imprenta de El Ferro Carryl, 1880.

---, El Romanismo y la Historia, Montevideo, Imprenta de El Ferro Carryl, 1881.

---, Las Misiones Evangélicas en los paises no cristianos, Montevideo, Imprenta de El Ferro Carryl, 1881.

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Bibliography

Armand Hugon, G. D. [sic], La Luce 35, 28 agosto 1929.

Armand Ugon, Daniel, Mesajero Valdense 250, 15 settembre 1929.

Armand Ugon, Jean Daniel,  L’Écho des Vallées Vaudoises 34, 30 agosto 1929.

Tourn, N., I valdesi in America, Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice, 1906.

Tourn, S., 'Giovanni Daniele Armand Ugon', Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia, http://www.studivaldesi.org/dizionario/evan_det.php?evan_id=375, accessed 21 October 2019.

Tron, E., Historia de la Iglesia de Colonia Valdense, desde la fundación de la Colonia del Rosario Oriental hasta el día  de hoy, Montevideo, 1928.

Tron, E., 'El pastor Daniel Armand Ugon. I. Infancia', Boletin de la Sociedad Sudamericana de Historia Valdense 17 (15 agosto 1951), pp. 1-16.

Vinay, V., Storia dei Valdesi III. Dal movimento evangelico italiano al movimento ecumenico, Torino: Claudiana, 1980, pp. 205-221.

Dalmas, M., I Valdesi nel Rio della Plata, Monografie edite in occasione del 17 febbraio, Torre Pellice, Società di Studi Valdesi, 1982.

Gosso, E., Allende el océano, en un país lejano. La colonia valdese dell’Uruguay, Tesi di Laurea in Comunicazione Culturale, discussa alla Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Università degli studi di Torino, relatore L. Allegra, A.A. 2005-2006.

Gosso, E., 'Lettere dall’Uruguay: la memoria e il legame con il valdismo in Italia (1877-1928)', Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi 199, dicembre 2006, pp. 93-120.'

Gosso, E., 'La figura di Daniele Armand Ugon e la sua importanza nel processo di consolidamento della colonia', Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi 204, giugno 2009, pp. 45-61.

Ballesio, G. (a cura di), 'I valdesi nel Rio de la Plata (1858-2008). Modelli di emigrazione, Atti del XLVIII Convegno di studi sulla Riforma e sui movimenti religiosi in Italia (Torre Pellice, 30-31 agosto 2008), Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi, anno CXXVI, 204 (giugno 2009).