Roman Catholic Bishop. Born to a family of peasants, Antonio Maria Roveggio entered seminary in Vicenza, where he was ordained priest by the local bishop Giovanni Antonio Farina, future blessed, in March 1884. Interesting himself in missionary activities while still pursuing his studies, following his ordination Roveggio joined the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus in Verona and upon taking his vows, left for Cairo in 1887. Facing various difficulties upon his arrival due to an ongoing local "holy war", settling on Semiramis, a small island on a edge of the Nile where an anti-slavery colony was founded in 1888 by Bishop Francesco Sogaro, Roveggio established schools for boys and girls, built a village for families, places of crafts including those of a shoemaker, tailor, blacksmith and a carpenter, a central irrigation, a small market and kept relations with European institutions and personalities that had the missions at heart. The fame of this anti-slavery colony soon arrived in Europe and Roveggio was honored by a visit from the Viceroy of Egypt, who, in order to express his satisfaction, satisfied with the fact that Christians and Muslims were living in harmony together, left a gift of a reasonable financial contribution to the personal needs of the colony. Empress Elizabeth of Austria also paid a visit to the colony in November 1891. Following the resignation of bishop Sogaro from the office of apostolic vicar of Central Africa in 1894, Roveggio was appointed his successor at the early age of thirty six, receiving his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Amastris the following year in Verona. Visiting successively Vienna, Lyon, Paris and London in order to plead the cause of the mission during the difficult time of the struggle for the European colonization of Africa, notwithstanding that he was poorly trained to the courts, countess Maria Ledochowska, future blessed, bought him bought a big boat to sail the Nile, called the 'Redemptor'. Back in Africa, he visited tirelessly several missionary stations across Egypt and Sudan. Stricken with malaria, he passed away alone on board a train while heading back towards Egypt in Berber, Sudan. Laid to rest there in the Syrian fashion, a few weeks later his body was exhumed, and although it exhaled smell, was found intact. Transferred to Aswan, Egypt, along with the remains of Saint Daniele Comboni, founder of the missionaries which carry his name, they remained there until 1957, when due to local political unrest were taken to Verona, Italy and buried at the motherhouse of the Comboni missionaries. The cause of his beatification is in process.