Matteo Ricci

Also known as Li Madou, Mateo Ricci

Italian Catholic missionary (1552–1610)

AI overview

Matteo Ricci was an Italian Catholic priest who spent most of his life in China during the late 1500s and early 1600s, where he worked to introduce Christianity to Chinese audiences. He matters because he pioneered a respectful approach to missionary work by learning the Chinese language, adopting local customs, and engaging with Chinese scholars on intellectual topics, which influenced how Christianity was presented in China for centuries to come.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Matteo
Family name: Li
Gender: male
Citizenship: Papal States
Place of birth: Macerata
Place of death: Beijing
Occupation: sinologist
Educated at: Roman College
Languages spoken: Chinese
Religion: Catholicism
Image: Ricciportrait.jpg
Work location: Saint Paul's College, Goa
Religious order: Society of Jesus

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time period: Ming dynasty
place of burial: Zhalan Cemetery
Commons category: Matteo Ricci
date of birth: 1552-10-06
date of death: 1610-05-11
Commons Creator page: Matteo Ricci
described by source: The Catholic Encyclopedia
topic's main category: Category:Matteo Ricci
Commons gallery: Matteo Ricci
canonization status: Venerable
feast day: May 11
maintained by WikiProject: WikiProject Mathematics

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Encyclopedic overview

Matteo Ricci SJ ( Italian: [matˈtɛːo ˈrittʃi]; Latin: Matthaeus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See declared its recognition of Ricci's heroic virtues, thereby bestowing upon him the honorific of Venerable.

Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China. He mastered the Chinese language and writing system. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by the Wanli Emperor, who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendrical science. He emphasized parallels between Catholicism and Confucianism but opposed Buddhism. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism. He also worked with several Chinese elites, such as Xu Guangqi, in translating Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin for the first time in history.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Matteo Ricci” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.