- Joseph Toronto
__NOTOC__Joseph Toronto (born Giuseppe Taranto) (1818 –
1883-07-06 ) was the first Italian convert to theLatter Day Saint movement and was one of the first missionaries ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) inItaly .Biography
Toronto was born in
Sardinia and was a sailor in the Mediterranean Merchant Marines and on trans-Atlantic freighters. While inBoston ,Massachusetts in 1843, Toronto metLatter Day Saint missionaries, read the "Book of Mormon " (in English), and was baptized by George B. Wallace.Shortly after joining the Latter Day Saint church, Toronto's ship collided with another, which almost resulted in Toronto's
drowning . Toronto abandoned sailing and moved toNauvoo ,Illinois in 1845 to join the main gathering of Latter Day Saints. He donated his life's savings — nearly $2600 in gold coins — to the building of theNauvoo Temple ; Toronto's donation enabled work to continue after it had stalled due to lack of funds. [B.H. Roberts (ed.) (1930). "Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints " (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News) 2:472.]In 1848, Toronto emigrated as a
Mormon pioneer from Illinois toUtah Territory and was the first Italian to set foot in theSalt Lake Valley . In Utah, he was employed as the keeper of the church's cattle herds onAntelope Island in theGreat Salt Lake .In 1849, Toronto was ordained a seventy in the LDS Church. In 1850, he traveled with
Lorenzo Snow and Thomas B.H. Stenhouse toEngland and then on to continentalEurope and became the first LDS Church missionaries in Italy. [James R. Christianson, [http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=e716aeca0ea6b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1 “Early Missionary Work in Italy and Switzerland,”] "Ensign", Aug. 1982, 35.] Toronto and his associates met with little success due in part to opposition from the Italian media and government. In 1851, Snow and Toronto hired an Italian to translate the "Book of Mormon" into Italian, a project that was completed by 1852.Toronto died in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.
Descendants
One of Toronto's sons,
Joseph B. Toronto , served as a professor and vice president of theUniversity of Utah . [http://db3-sql.staff.library.utah.edu/lucene/Manuscripts/null/Ms0179.xml/complete]Joseph Toronto's grandson
Wallace F. Toronto served as president of the Czechslovakia Mission in adstencia for 25 years as well as serving once as a missionary and twice more as mission president in Czechoslovakia.Notes
References
* "2007 Deseret Morning News Church Almanac" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Morning News, 2006)
* Will Bagley, [http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/history_matters/102002.html "From the Earliest Days, Italian Immigrants Have Left a Lasting Mark on Utah"] , "Salt Lake Tribune ",2002-10-20 , p. B2
* "LDS Church News",1981-06-20 , p. 16
* Mathew S. McBride, [http://deseretbook.com/mormon-life/news/story?story_id=619 "Heroes of the Nauvoo Temple Story: Joseph Toronto"] , "LDS Living",2002-06-26
* Eliza Moody, [http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/10391 "Conversion of an Italian member of the LDS Church"] , "BYU NewsNet",2000-07-19
* "Sketch of the Life of Joseph Toronto” (typescript, n.d.), "Mormon Biographies Collection" (Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church Historical Department)
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