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Pope Francis has officially agreed culture of dialogue champion – Servant of God Matteo Ricci – “lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree”.
With the pope’s endorsement, the famous 16th-century Italian Jesuit missionary to China is now on the path to sainthood.
Last December the Vatican announced that Francis had the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints, to promulgate a decree recognising Ricci’s “heroic virtues”.
For the pope to declare him blessed (the next step on the path to sainthood), the person presenting his cause for canonisation (ie the postulator) will need to provide evidence of a miracle through Ricci’s intervention.
By Vatican convention, a second miracle will be needed for him to be declared a saint.
A brief bio
Matteo Ricci, a professed priest of the Society of Jesus – and a known inspiration to Pope Francis – was born in Italy in 1552. He died in Peking [now Beijing], China, in 1610.
Last May, Francis described Ricci as a “champion” of the “culture of dialogue”.
The Vatican’s announcement of Ricci’s advancement towards sainthood is important for the Catholic Church in China and its 12 million members.
There, the Jesuit missionary is famed not only for his actions and his writings, but for being “a man of encounters, who went beyond being a foreigner and became a citizen of the world”.
Ricci began his missionary work in 1582 in Macau, then a Portuguese colony. He then moved to mainland China, adopting the Chinese lifestyle and language. He died in China 27 years later.
He made history in 1601 as the first European to enter China’s Forbidden City in Peking. When he died, he became the first Westerner to be buried in Imperial Ground in the capital city by a special decree of the Emperor.
Known as “Li Madou” to the Chinese, Ricci provided the Emperor with scholarly works in optics, astronomy, music, geography, geometry and numerous other fields.
He subsequently converted several prominent Chinese officials to Christianity, including one whose cause for sainthood is also under consideration. Ricci also cooperated Chinese scholars in translating classics like Euclid’s Elements into Chinese and translating important Confucian texts into Latin.
Still important to China
The Chinese recognise Ricci as a bridge builder between the East and the West. They commemorated him in the Millenium Monument in Beijing. The only other Westerner so honoured is Marco Polo.
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