GAVAZZI, ALESSANDRO (1809-1889), an Italian preacher and patriot, who was born at Bologna on March 21, 1809. He at first became a monk (1825), and attached himself to the Barnabites at Naples, where he afterwards (1829) acted as professor of rhetoric. Driven into exile on account of his liberal views he found refuge in England, where he joined the Evan gelical church, and became head and organizer of the Italian Protestants in London. Returning to Italy in 1860, he served as army-chaplain with Garibaldi. In 1870 he became head of the Free Church (Chiesa libera) of Italy, united the scattered Con gregations into the "Unione delle Chiese libere in Italia," and in 1875 founded in Rome the theological college of the Free Church, in which he himself taught dogmatics, apologetics and polemics. He died in Rome on the 9th day of January 1889.
Amongst his publications are No Union with Rome (1871) ; The Priest in Absolution (1877) ; My Recollections of the Last Four Popes, etc., answer to Cardinal Wiseman (1858) ; Orations, 2 decades (1851).