St. Paul's College, Macao
Encyclopedia
St. Paul's College of Macau (Portuguese: Colégio de São Paulo) also known as College of Madre de Deus (Mater Dei
in Portuguese) was a university
founded in 1594 in Macau
by Jesuits at the service of the Portuguese
under the Padroado
treaty. It claims the title of the first Western university in the Far East.
"St. Paul's University College of Macau" was funded by Alessandro Valignano
in 1594 by upgrading the previous Madre de Deus school, as a stopover to prepare Jesuit missionaries
traveling east. Its academic program came to include core disciplines such as theology
, philosophy
, and mathematics
, geography
, astronomy
, and Latin
, Portuguese
and Chinese language
s, including also a school of music and arts. It had immense influence on the learning of Eastern languages and culture, housing the first western sinologists Matteo Ricci
, Johann Adam Schall von Bell
and Ferdinand Verbiest
, among many famous scholars of the time.
The College was the base for Jesuit missionaries
travelling to China
, Japan
and East Asia, and developed mingled with a thrifty Macau-Nagasaki
trade until 1645. After a revolt blamed on religious influence
, Japan expelled the Portuguese and banned Catholicism, and the college became then a shelter for fleeing Christian
priests. Jesuits abandoned it in 1762 when they were expelled by the Portuguese authorities, during the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1835. In 2005 the ruins of St. Paul's - notably the facade of the Madre de Deus church - were officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO
World Heritage Site
- Historic Centre of Macau
.
Since 1557, Portuguese Macau
had been the single center for exchange between China
and Japan
, and from there to Europe via Goa
. In 1571 Nagasaki
was opened for Portuguese ships, after an agreement with Daimyo
Omura Sumitada
who converted to Catholicism, and a flourishing trade
established between the two cities, that would became known as "Nanban trade period".
Missionary activities in Japan
had begun in 1549, when Jesuit co-founder Francis Xavier
was received in a friendly manner and permitted to preach. Jesuits established congregations in Hirado, Yamaguchi and Bungo (by 1579 there were about 130,000 converts) and many daimyo
s converted to Christianity, some to gain access to trade and arms. An attempt to reach China was made in 1552 by Francis Xavier, after being sought to talk to the Chinese Emperor in the favor of Portuguese being held prisoners in Guangzhou
, but he died off mainland China, at Shangchuan Island
: although Macau had been granted to Portuguese, contacts with continental China were always cautious and, starting in 1517
, several Portuguese embassies were stalled while trying.
In 1576 Pope Gregory XIII
included Japan in the Portuguese diocese
of Macau
. In September 1578 Alessandro Valignano
arrived at Macau as a visitor of Jesuit Missions in the Indies
, to examine and when necessary reorganize, answering to the Jesuit Superior in Rome
. No missions had succeeded in establishing in mainland China, while in Japan they multiplied. Language study had always been one of the core problems: in his view, it was necessary first to learn to speak, read, and write the Chinese language
. To this end, he wrote to the Superior in India, who sent to Macau Jesuit scholar Michele Ruggieri
(羅明堅) who called the help of Matteo Ricci
(利瑪竇), to share the work. Ricci joined him in Macau in 1582. and together, they become the first European scholars of China and the Chinese language.
In 1579 Valignano made his first visit to Japan. Before the Visitor arrived, seventeen of Valignano's personally appointed missionaries wrote to him complaining that language training was totally nonexistent. Lacking fluency in the Japanese language, Francis Xavier had limited to reading aloud a Japanese translation of a catechism, however Jesuits established several congregations. In 1563 Oda Nobunaga
favored Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis
, and generally tolerated Christianity. It was Valignano's first official act upon arriving in Japan that all new missionaries in the province spend two years in a language course, separating these newcomers by leaps and bounds from the first enthusiastic but stilted efforts of Francis Xavier.
On the 9th of June, 1580 Omura Sumitada ceded jurisdiction over Nagasaki and Mogi to the Society of Jesus. On August 25, the armies of Philip II of Spain
won the Battle of Alcântara
, claiming the throne of Portugal and accomplishing the union of the empires
so feared in Macau and Nagasaki, as it threatened the Chinese permission to stay in Macau, and challenged their carefully built trade monopoly as it opened to the Spanish based in the Philippines
. In 1582, from Japan, Valignano sent an embassy to the Pope and the kings of Europe sponsored by Kirishitan
daimyos Sumitada, Otomo Sorin
and Arima Harunobu
, whom he accompanied via Macau to Goa.
In 1583, the Portuguese in Macau were permitted to form a Senate
and kept sovereignty. Macau prospered, and Jesuits engaged in the trade. This breach of ecclesiastical practice did not go unnoticed by other European missions in the area, or by those living via inter-Asiatic trade. Eventually, the Pope was forced to intervene, and, in 1585, ordered an immediate cessation of all mercantile activities by the Society. Valignano made an impassioned appeal to the Pope, as Jesuit needed the funds to their many enterprises.
In 1594 St. Paul's College of Macau was authorized by the Jesuit superior in Rome, by upgrading the previous Madre de Deus school. At first the college included two seminaries for lay brothers, a university with faculties of art
s, philosophy
and theology
, a primary school and a school of music and arts. By 1595 Valignano could boast in a letter that not only had the Jesuits printed a Japanese grammar (see Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
) and dictionary (see Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Nippo Jisho)
), published in a printing press established in Nagasaki, but also several books (mostly the lives of saints and martyrs) entirely in Japanese. The main body of the grammar and dictionary was compiled from 1590–1603; when finished, it was a truly comprehensive volume with the dictionary alone containing some 32,798 entries.
At first the college included two seminaries for lay brothers, a university with faculties of art
s, philosophy
and theology
, a primary school and a school of music and arts. Between 1597 and 1762 it had immense influence on the learning of Eastern languages and culture by missionary Jesuits, making Macao a base for the spreading of Christianity in China
and in Japan
. Its academic program soon became comprehensive and equivalent to that of a university: it included core disciplines such as theology
, philosophy
, and mathematics
, geography
, astronomy
, and Latin
, Portuguese
and Chinese language
s. Many famous scholars taught and learned at this college, that became home to the first western sinologists such as Matteo Ricci
, Johann Adam Schall von Bell
and Ferdinand Verbiest
.
Macao was thus the training ground for missions in Asia. From 1597 until 1762 Jesuit priests entering into China would always come first to Macao where, at St. Paul’s College, they would learn Chinese language together with other areas of Chinese knowledge, including philosophy and comparative religion, gathering a body of knowledge that would lead to the Jesuit position in defense of the adoption of local practices in the Chinese Rites controversy
. It was the largest seminary in the Far East at the time, and the first western-style university in the region.
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
in Portuguese) was a university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
founded in 1594 in Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
by Jesuits at the service of the Portuguese
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
under the Padroado
Padroado
The Padroado , was an arrangement between the Holy See and the kingdom of Portugal, affirmed by a series of treaties, by which the Vatican delegated to the kings of Spain and Portugal the administration of the local Churches...
treaty. It claims the title of the first Western university in the Far East.
"St. Paul's University College of Macau" was funded by Alessandro Valignano
Alessandro Valignano
Alessandro Valignano, , was a Jesuit missionary born in Chieti, back then part of the Kingdom of Naples, who helped supervise the introduction of Catholicism to the Far East, and especially to Japan....
in 1594 by upgrading the previous Madre de Deus school, as a stopover to prepare Jesuit missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
traveling east. Its academic program came to include core disciplines such as theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
s, including also a school of music and arts. It had immense influence on the learning of Eastern languages and culture, housing the first western sinologists Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....
, Johann Adam Schall von Bell
Johann Adam Schall von Bell
Johann Adam Schall von Bell was a German Jesuit and astronomer. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China and became an adviser to the Chinese emperor.- Life :...
and Ferdinand Verbiest
Ferdinand Verbiest
Father Ferdinand Verbiest was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in Flanders, later part of the modern state of Belgium. He is known as Nan Huairen in Chinese...
, among many famous scholars of the time.
The College was the base for Jesuit missionaries
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
travelling to China
Jesuit China missions
The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of relations between China and the Western world. The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th and 17th century played a significant role in continuing the transmission of...
, Japan
History of Roman Catholicism in Japan
Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many daimyo in Kyoshu. Suddenly in 1587 Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity and ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went...
and East Asia, and developed mingled with a thrifty Macau-Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
trade until 1645. After a revolt blamed on religious influence
Shimabara Rebellion
The was an uprising largely involving Japanese peasants, most of them Catholic Christians, in 1637–1638 during the Edo period.It was one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule...
, Japan expelled the Portuguese and banned Catholicism, and the college became then a shelter for fleeing Christian
Kirishitan
, from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...
priests. Jesuits abandoned it in 1762 when they were expelled by the Portuguese authorities, during the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1835. In 2005 the ruins of St. Paul's - notably the facade of the Madre de Deus church - were officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
- Historic Centre of Macau
Historic Centre of Macau
The Historic Centre of Macau is a collection of over twenty locations that witness the unique assimilation and co-existence of Chinese and Portuguese cultures in Macau, a former Portuguese colony...
.
History
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
had been the single center for exchange between China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and from there to Europe via Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
. In 1571 Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
was opened for Portuguese ships, after an agreement with Daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
Omura Sumitada
Omura Sumitada
Ōmura Sumitada Japanese daimyo lord of the Sengoku period. He achieved fame throughout the country for being the first of the daimyo to convert to Christianity following the arrival of the Jesuit missionaries in the mid-16th century. Following his baptism, he became known as "Dom Bartolomeu"...
who converted to Catholicism, and a flourishing trade
Nanban trade
The or the in Japanese history extends from the arrival of the first Europeans to Japan in 1543, to their near-total exclusion from the archipelago in 1614, under the promulgation of the "Sakoku" Seclusion Edicts.- Etymology :...
established between the two cities, that would became known as "Nanban trade period".
Missionary activities in Japan
History of Roman Catholicism in Japan
Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many daimyo in Kyoshu. Suddenly in 1587 Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity and ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went...
had begun in 1549, when Jesuit co-founder Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534...
was received in a friendly manner and permitted to preach. Jesuits established congregations in Hirado, Yamaguchi and Bungo (by 1579 there were about 130,000 converts) and many daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
s converted to Christianity, some to gain access to trade and arms. An attempt to reach China was made in 1552 by Francis Xavier, after being sought to talk to the Chinese Emperor in the favor of Portuguese being held prisoners in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, but he died off mainland China, at Shangchuan Island
Shangchuan Island
Shangchuan Island also written is the main island of Chuanshan Archipelago on the southern coast of China. Its name originated from São João - Saint John in Portuguese. It is part of the Guangdong province, in the South China Sea...
: although Macau had been granted to Portuguese, contacts with continental China were always cautious and, starting in 1517
Fernão Pires de Andrade
Captain Fernão Pires de Andrade was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and official diplomat under the explorer and Malacca governor Afonso de Albuquerque...
, several Portuguese embassies were stalled while trying.
In 1576 Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...
included Japan in the Portuguese diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
of Macau
Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau was established on January 23, 1576 by the edict of Pope Gregory XIII. It originally covered China, Japan, Vietnam and the Malay archipelago, with the exception of the Philippines...
. In September 1578 Alessandro Valignano
Alessandro Valignano
Alessandro Valignano, , was a Jesuit missionary born in Chieti, back then part of the Kingdom of Naples, who helped supervise the introduction of Catholicism to the Far East, and especially to Japan....
arrived at Macau as a visitor of Jesuit Missions in the Indies
Indies
The Indies is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and...
, to examine and when necessary reorganize, answering to the Jesuit Superior in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. No missions had succeeded in establishing in mainland China, while in Japan they multiplied. Language study had always been one of the core problems: in his view, it was necessary first to learn to speak, read, and write the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. To this end, he wrote to the Superior in India, who sent to Macau Jesuit scholar Michele Ruggieri
Michele Ruggieri
Michele Ruggieri was an Italian Jesuit priest. One of the founding fathers of the Jesuit China missions, and a co-author of the first Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, he can be described as the first European sinologist.-Formation years in Europe:Before entering the Society of Jesus Michele...
(羅明堅) who called the help of Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....
(利瑪竇), to share the work. Ricci joined him in Macau in 1582. and together, they become the first European scholars of China and the Chinese language.
In 1579 Valignano made his first visit to Japan. Before the Visitor arrived, seventeen of Valignano's personally appointed missionaries wrote to him complaining that language training was totally nonexistent. Lacking fluency in the Japanese language, Francis Xavier had limited to reading aloud a Japanese translation of a catechism, however Jesuits established several congregations. In 1563 Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga
was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...
favored Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis
Luís Fróis
Luís Fróis was a Portuguese missionary.He was born in Lisbon and in 1548 joined the Society of Jesus . In 1563, he came to Japan to engage in missionary work, and in the following year arrived in Kyoto, meeting Ashikaga Yoshiteru who was then Shogun...
, and generally tolerated Christianity. It was Valignano's first official act upon arriving in Japan that all new missionaries in the province spend two years in a language course, separating these newcomers by leaps and bounds from the first enthusiastic but stilted efforts of Francis Xavier.
On the 9th of June, 1580 Omura Sumitada ceded jurisdiction over Nagasaki and Mogi to the Society of Jesus. On August 25, the armies of Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
won the Battle of Alcântara
Battle of Alcântara (1580)
The Battle of Alcântara took place on August 25, 1580, near the brook of Alcântara, in the vicinity of Lisbon, Portugal, and was a decisive victory of the Spanish Habsburg King Philip II over the Portuguese pretender to the Portuguese throne, Dom António, Prior of Crato.-Background:In Portugal, the...
, claiming the throne of Portugal and accomplishing the union of the empires
Iberian Union
The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...
so feared in Macau and Nagasaki, as it threatened the Chinese permission to stay in Macau, and challenged their carefully built trade monopoly as it opened to the Spanish based in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1582, from Japan, Valignano sent an embassy to the Pope and the kings of Europe sponsored by Kirishitan
Kirishitan
, from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...
daimyos Sumitada, Otomo Sorin
Otomo Sorin
, also known as Fujiwara no Yoshishige and Ōtomo Yoshishige , was a Japanese feudal lord of the Ōtomo clan, one of the few to have converted to Christianity. The eldest son of Ōtomo Yoshiaki, he inherited the domain of Funai, on Kyūshū, Japan's southernmost main island, from his father...
and Arima Harunobu
Arima Harunobu
was the second son and successor of Japanese daimyo Arima Yoshisada. Harunobu was born in the castle of Arima and controlled the Shimabara area of Hizen province. After Harunobu's father's death, he began the persecution of Christians in his region. With Ryūzōji Takanobu expanding into his domain,...
, whom he accompanied via Macau to Goa.
In 1583, the Portuguese in Macau were permitted to form a Senate
Leal Senado
This article is about the building. For the organization known as the Leal Senado, see Municipal Council of Macau.The Leal Senado Building was the seat of Macau's government during its time as a Portuguese colony. It is located at one end of the Senado Square...
and kept sovereignty. Macau prospered, and Jesuits engaged in the trade. This breach of ecclesiastical practice did not go unnoticed by other European missions in the area, or by those living via inter-Asiatic trade. Eventually, the Pope was forced to intervene, and, in 1585, ordered an immediate cessation of all mercantile activities by the Society. Valignano made an impassioned appeal to the Pope, as Jesuit needed the funds to their many enterprises.
In 1594 St. Paul's College of Macau was authorized by the Jesuit superior in Rome, by upgrading the previous Madre de Deus school. At first the college included two seminaries for lay brothers, a university with faculties of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
s, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, a primary school and a school of music and arts. By 1595 Valignano could boast in a letter that not only had the Jesuits printed a Japanese grammar (see Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
is an early 17th century Portuguese grammar of the Japanese language. It was compiled by João Rodrigues, a Portuguese missionary of the Society of Jesus. It is the oldest complete Japanese grammar, and is a valuable reference for late Late Middle Japanese.-Background:Christian missionary work in...
) and dictionary (see Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Nippo Jisho)
Nippo Jisho
The Nippo Jisho or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam was a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist...
), published in a printing press established in Nagasaki, but also several books (mostly the lives of saints and martyrs) entirely in Japanese. The main body of the grammar and dictionary was compiled from 1590–1603; when finished, it was a truly comprehensive volume with the dictionary alone containing some 32,798 entries.
At first the college included two seminaries for lay brothers, a university with faculties of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
s, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, a primary school and a school of music and arts. Between 1597 and 1762 it had immense influence on the learning of Eastern languages and culture by missionary Jesuits, making Macao a base for the spreading of Christianity in China
Roman Catholicism in China
Roman Catholicism in China has a long and complicated history...
and in Japan
History of Roman Catholicism in Japan
Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many daimyo in Kyoshu. Suddenly in 1587 Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity and ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went...
. Its academic program soon became comprehensive and equivalent to that of a university: it included core disciplines such as theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
s. Many famous scholars taught and learned at this college, that became home to the first western sinologists such as Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....
, Johann Adam Schall von Bell
Johann Adam Schall von Bell
Johann Adam Schall von Bell was a German Jesuit and astronomer. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China and became an adviser to the Chinese emperor.- Life :...
and Ferdinand Verbiest
Ferdinand Verbiest
Father Ferdinand Verbiest was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in Flanders, later part of the modern state of Belgium. He is known as Nan Huairen in Chinese...
.
Macao was thus the training ground for missions in Asia. From 1597 until 1762 Jesuit priests entering into China would always come first to Macao where, at St. Paul’s College, they would learn Chinese language together with other areas of Chinese knowledge, including philosophy and comparative religion, gathering a body of knowledge that would lead to the Jesuit position in defense of the adoption of local practices in the Chinese Rites controversy
Chinese Rites controversy
The Chinese Rites controversy was a dispute within the Catholic Church from the 1630s to the early 18th century about whether Chinese folk religion rites and offerings to the emperor constituted idolatry...
. It was the largest seminary in the Far East at the time, and the first western-style university in the region.
Notable scholars
- Alessandro ValignanoAlessandro ValignanoAlessandro Valignano, , was a Jesuit missionary born in Chieti, back then part of the Kingdom of Naples, who helped supervise the introduction of Catholicism to the Far East, and especially to Japan....
(1578) 1594 founder of the college, promoter of Japanese languageJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and Chinese languageChinese languageThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
studies. - Michele RuggieriMichele RuggieriMichele Ruggieri was an Italian Jesuit priest. One of the founding fathers of the Jesuit China missions, and a co-author of the first Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, he can be described as the first European sinologist.-Formation years in Europe:Before entering the Society of Jesus Michele...
(1579) co-author of the Portuguese-Chinese dictionary - the first ever European-Chinese dictionary - Matteo RicciMatteo RicciMatteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....
(1582) co-author of the Portuguese-Chinese dictionary - the first ever European-Chinese dictionary - João Rodrigues (missionary) (1574?-77 and 1610-1633) organizer of the first ever European(Portuguese)-Japanese dictionary, the Nippo JishoNippo JishoThe Nippo Jisho or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam was a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist...
. - Johann Adam Schall von BellJohann Adam Schall von BellJohann Adam Schall von Bell was a German Jesuit and astronomer. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China and became an adviser to the Chinese emperor.- Life :...
(1619) counsellor of the Shunzhi EmperorShunzhi EmperorThe Shunzhi Emperor was the third emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China, which he did from 1644 to 1661. "Shunzhi" was the name of his reign period...
, Director of the Imperial Observatory and the Tribunal of Mathematics. - Alexander de RhodesAlexander de RhodesFather Alexander de Rhodes was a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, the first trilingual Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary published in Rome in 1651.- Biography...
(1630-1640) author of the first Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionaryDictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et LatinumThe Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum is a trilingual Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary written by the French Jesuit lexicographer Alexandre de Rhodes after 12 years in Vietnam, and published by the Propaganda Fide in Rome in 1651 upon Rhodes' visit to Europe.Before Rhodes's work,...
, published in Rome in 1651. - Michał Boym (1643) Teacher at the College, author of numerous works on Asian fauna, flora and geography
- Ferdinand VerbiestFerdinand VerbiestFather Ferdinand Verbiest was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in Flanders, later part of the modern state of Belgium. He is known as Nan Huairen in Chinese...
(1659) mathematician and astronomer, corrected the Chinese calendarChinese calendarThe Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures as well...
, was Head of the Mathematical Board and Director of the Observatory. - Thomas PereiraThomas PereiraThomas Pereira or Tomás Pereira , also known as Tomé Pereira, was a Portuguese Jesuit and musician who worked as a missionary in Qing China....
(1665?-73) considered the introducer of Western music in China, emissary of Kangxi EmperorKangxi EmperorThe Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...
managed to secure the Treaty of NerchinskTreaty of NerchinskThe Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until... - Wenceslas Pantaleon KirwitzerWenceslas Pantaleon KirwitzerWenceslas Pantaleon Kirwitzer was an astronomer and a Jesuit missionary.- Life :Kirwitzer was born in Kadaň , Bohemia to a protestant family descended from the village of Krbice so his surname was derived from "Kürbitzer"...
- Manuel Dias (Yang MaNuo)Manuel Dias (Yang MaNuo)Father Manuel Dias , also known as Emanuel Diaz, was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who introduced for the first time in China the telescope in the early 17th century, just three years after Galileo presented it. The telescope was first mentioned in his Tian Wen Lüe in 1615...
- Martino MartiniMartino MartiniMartino Martini was an Italian Jesuit missionary, cartographer and historian, mainly working on ancient Imperial China.-Early years:Martini was born in Trento, in the Bishopric of Trent...
- Giulio AlenioGiulio AlenioGiulio Alenio was an Italian Jesuit missionary and scholar.He was born at Brescia, in Italy, and died at Yanping, China. He became a member of the Society of Jesus in 1600, and was distinguished for his knowledge of mathematics and theology.He entered the Society of Jesus and was sent to the East...
- Xu GuangqiXu GuangqiXu Guangqi , was a Chinese scholar-bureaucrat, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician in the Ming Dynasty. Xu was a colleague and collaborator of the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Sabatino de Ursis and they translated several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of...
- Wu LiWu LiWú Lì ; ca. 1632-1718 was a Chinese landscape painter and poet during the Qing Dynasty ....
- Petro Kasui Kibe