James Bertoch: A Waldensian Convert Who Gathered to Utah and Returned to Preach (1854-1893)

James Bertoch (1838-1924) was among the converts of the Italian Mission—descendants of the ancient Waldenses of the Italian valleys who, upon hearing the restored gospel, gathered to the body of the Saints. He emigrated to Utah in 1854 with his sister Antoinette and his brother, and there built a life, marrying and rearing a family while he labored for his patron Joseph Toronto in exchange for subsistence. In 1892-93 he returned to serve a portion of a mission in San Germano, the very region of his birth, and some of those he encountered there also eventually settled in Utah. His journey is a faith-promoting witness that the gospel, once planted in the ancient valleys of the Waldenses, brought forth converts who crossed the sea to Zion and then returned, in love, to their own people to gather them also.