Father Guido was born at Rosà di Vicenza in 1911, the son of Angelo Baggio and Angela Cerantola.  He entered the Institute in 1928.  He made his religious profession in 1931 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1937.  That same year he left for Meru in Kenya where he worked until 1995.  From 1940 to 1944 he was in a prison camp in South Africa.  He was the vicar curate and pastor in a number of missions:  Kyeni, Rombia, Tigania, Gatonga, Materi, Gatunga, Tuthu, Kiangunyi, Mwea, Gaturi.

On January 15, 1947, he wrote a letter to Father Gaudenzio Barlassina, the Superior General.  It was his first letter after being released from the prison camp in South Africa.  “It is with infinite gratitude to our Lord that I find myself once again in the mission working as a missionary.  I thank Him for my return.  I thank Him too for the excellent health I enjoy.  I am in such good shape that I can on occasion travel 70 miles in a day to visit our remote out-schools.”

Father Baggio spoke about his work at the Kyeni mission.  He started a school to teach terra-cotta molding and firing which was admired and supported by the District Commissioner.  “All of this is for the greater glory of God and the good name of our  Consolata Catholic missions.”  Together with Father Rosano he established a carpentry workshop that attracted many young people  eager to learn this trade. 

His mission school was made of mud;  the student body went from 80 to 250 and there was a desperate need for more buildings.  “So we decided to make bricks:  with 60,000 bricks we can build two magnificent schools – one for boys and one for girls …”

Father Baggio goes on to talk about the fifteen chapel-schools dependent on the mission, the 200 catechumens scattered throughout  the territory and the many conversions taking place each year.  The mission involved an enormous amount of work on many different fronts and the missionaries worked day and night.  Father Baggio still found time for his hobbies:  singing and painting.  “This year we wanted to do something special for Christmas.  Father, if you could only have heard the Haller Mass in two voices and the motets … everyone was enormously pleased – even the old “biddies” who accosted me after Mass and said, “It seemed like we were in paradise!”

“Painting?  Have I given it up?  No, I must confess, I’m still painting.  Recently I painted a picture of St. Michael (2  meters by 1.5).  It will be an icon in the church we will build at the Primary.  Last year I entered some paintings and pencil drawings in the Arts and Crafts Exhibition at Nairobi.  Thanks to God I sold some of my work and received a favorable mention in the Standard newspaper.”

From 1949 to 1957 Father Guido was the pastor at Rombia – one of the most remote and needy missions in the Meru Prefecture.  His work to keep the mission solvent was enormous.  On December 22, 1952 he wrote to Father Domenico Fiorina, the Superior General, and complained that he had no one to help him maintain the immense plant: “ … we had to build a boarding school for thirty boys, a boarding school for the same number of girls, a large shelter for the sick, a sleeping shelter for those Christians who arrive on Saturday night for Sunday Mass … a kitchen in stone and bricks … thank God all of this has been accomplished.  The eight-room house for the Fathers has already risen one meter from the ground …I have had to build two great furnaces to fire the bricks, and with the help of five workers I have “set up”  a carpentry workshop.”

Architect, mason, carpenter … Father Guido had to act as a businessman as well and find sacks of meal and beans to feed the Mission’s 250 students.  For several years he requested and insisted that he be assigned a confrère to share this work.  What bothered him most was that all this busy work kept him from “visiting his scattered  Christians and Catechumens and celebrating Mass for them.”

In August 1958, Father Baggio went to the United States to visit relatives.  On October 19, 1958 he wrote a letter from the U.S. to Father Fiorina.  “Msgr. Bessone has written and told me not to lose my heart to America, and I answered him, ‘How can I lose my heart to America when half of it remains in Embu?’  Yes, Father, I so much want to return, to sacrifice my life for our dear black people.  During my retreat in Washington, I shed a tear thinking of Africa.  Forgive me, Father, my heart is a little weak … but I want to die as a missionary in Africa.”

In reality Father Baggio’s many years of solitary and strenuous work had taken its toll on his health.  One of the reasons he was sent to America was to recuperate.  For the same reason he went to work in Brazil in October 1959.  He dedicated himself to painting and decorated the Institute’s churches and chapels.  He made mission appeals in the parishes and showed documentary films he had made.  For a while he was pastor at Curitiba – but longing for Africa was stronger than any other emotion.  After repeated requests he was at last allowed to return to his beloved, adopted land – Meru – in September 1962.

From 1962 to 1967 he worked at Gatonga.  He was happy to be back in Africa and plunged into missionary work enthusiastically.  He suffered from the merciless heat and was forced into convalescence.  In 1968 he was at Materi and felt better.  With God’s help he hoped to accomplish something worth while. 

From 1971 to 1972 he was back in Italy for vacation and rest.  During this time he organized two exhibitions of his work at Bassano del Grappa and Turin (Galleria Cassiopea) and two other shows in Vicenza.  The exhibitions were successful and he sold several paintings.  A local newspaper wrote, “… during his home furlough Father Baggio meditates and paints.  From the very beginning of his apprenticeship in Turin he has shown an aptitude for painting.  Under the tutelage of the painter Morgari he refined his technique.  From that time on his work has followed inspiration that comes from within and reflects the serenity, ingenuity, authenticity and immediacy of his spirit.  His drawing and composition are linear and simple – they combine nature and spirit.  His painting is equally limpid, transparent and to the point.  His colors are always rich but somewhat troubled;  his vision adheres closely to reality.  His work is pervaded with elements of life and lyricism.”

Speaking of his art, Father Baggio once said, “Painting is a second vocation for me.  My first vocation is to be a missionary in Africa. This has been true since I was twelve years old and first thought of being a missionary in Africa;  I began to draw at the same age – but the missionary vocation was always the more important."

In 1972 he worked on mission promotion at Alpignano.  That same year he left for Kenya and worked at Gatunga for two years.  He then went to Tuthu and subsequently to Kiangunyi.  From 1980 to 1986 he was the assistant pastor at Mwea and from 1986 to 1994 at Gaturi.

In 1995 he returned to Italy and went to live at the house in Alpignano.  On July 11, 2001 he returned to the House of Our Father.  On July 13 his funeral was celebrated in the Blessed G. Allamano chapel.  Father Francesco Bernardi presided at the  Eucharist and spoke about Father Guido’s many talents.  He was a gifted painter and left behind the important work he did in Meru: churches and exhibitions.  The income from his painting allowed him to build chapels, bridges, wells.  He had one golden talent – he was a missionary.

Besides being an artist he knew how to accept the gift of suffering - the sacrament of the presence of God; a presence we believe and hope he will experience fully in heaven with Our Lady, the Consolata, and our Founder.

Editorial Staff of Da Casa Madre