Louis Francescon
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Louis Francescon (1866-1964) was a missionary and pioneer of the Italian Pentecostal Movement.
Francescon was born in Cavasso Nuovo, a small village in Udine, Italy and emigrated to the United States in 1890, establishing in Chicago. He converted to a Waldensian-Presyberian mission that later was incorporated as the First Italian Presbyterian Church of Chicago.
In 1907 Francescon had contact with the North Avenue Full Gospel Mission, led by Pastor William H.Durham and accepted the Pentecostal doctrine.
He was elected one of the elders of the Assemblea Cristiana, one independent evangelical Italian church, which accepted the Pentecostal practice and became the Mother-church for the Italian Pentecostal movement.
Francescon started churches in Los Angeles, St.Louis, Philadelphia before departing in missions abroad. He went to Argentina, Brazil and the Old World. From his work emerged several denominations, such the Christian Church of North America and the Christian Congregation of Brazil.
He died as the Senior Elder of the Christian Congregation Church in Chicago in 1964.
[edit] Sources
- Alves, Leonardo - Luigi Francescon in "L'Opera di Dio: Testemunho do Movimento Pentecostal Italiana". n.d
- Bongiovanni, Guy - Pioneers of the Faith, CCNA, n.d
- Francescon, Louis - Faithful Testemony, self-published, Chicago 1948, 1952
