Evangelista Latino Enrico Vanni OFMCap (28 December 1878 – 9 May 1962) was an Italian Bishop and missionary who served as the Apostolic Vicar of Arabia[1] from 1916 to 1927[2] and the Archbishop of Agra from 1937 to 1955.
First opened by the Jesuits in 1579 and then entrusted to the Capuchins in the beginning of the 19th century, subsequently transformed into an Apostolic Vicariate, Agra then had been elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.
Between 1890 and 1891, the General Curia of the order[7] began negotiations with the Tuscan Province to entrust it with the care of the mission in Agra; a vast territory with 20 million inhabitants, of which about 12000 are Catholics.
[8] His value to engage with the masses did not go unnoticed in Rome, and on 15 April 1916, Pope Benedict XV appointed him Apostolic Vicar of Arabia and Titular bishop[9] of Tenedo.
Vanni understood that, in order to transmit the Catholic[11] message, it was necessary to act in the world of education and social intervention; orphanages, schools, hospitals were the places of missionary activity.
[12] The unfavorable climate in Aden[10] and the Somali Coast, and a worsening of his health conditions forced Vanni to return to Italy[13] and renounce the Vicariate[1] in January 1927.
The Real India, as Gandhi claimed, was that of the villages; it was therefore, necessary to evangelize; to create new schools, and through the construction of churches and houses in smaller centers, to reopen the Sardanha seminary.