"Indeed if I had had but two or three comrades to aid me 'tis possible that the Emperor Cham would have been baptized by this time! I ask then for such brethren to come, if any are willing to come, such I mean as will make it their great business to lead exemplary lives. . . . I have myself grown old and grey, more with toil and trouble than with years; for I am not more than fifty-eight."
— John of Montecorvino
Source: Letter from Cambalec (Khanbaliq), 8 January 1305, tr. H. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, vol. III (1914)
Seed, dispatch, brother
Views: 396
"It is in every way a land full of perils, and especially to be dreaded by strangers on account of the great ferocity of the natives and the many kinds of poison which it is there common to give in what is eaten and drunk. The fear of this has deterred priests from abroad from going there to help the islanders. I have considered in what great necessity they are, with no one to instruct them or give them the sacraments, and I have come to think that I ought to provide for their salvation even at the risk of my life. I have resolved to go thither as soon as possible, and to offer my life to the risk."
— Francis Xavier
Source: Letter from Amboyna to the Society at Rome, May 1546 (H. J. Coleridge, The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, vol. 1)
Life, adventure, soul
Views: 386
"The Italian Jesuit Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606) was appointed Visitor of the missions in the Indies in 1573 and arrived in Macau in September 1578. Seeing that no missionary stationed in Macau had succeeded in establishing himself in mainland China, he judged it necessary first to learn to speak, read and write Chinese; through his arrangements Michele Ruggieri and then Matteo Ricci came to Macau to study the language, becoming the first European scholars of China and the Chinese language. He made three extended visits to Japan, published his Latin Catechismus christianae fidei at Lisbon in 1586, founded St. Paul's College in Macau in 1594, and died in Macau in 1606."
"I feel like some lonely forest pine, scathed and shattered by the lightnings of heaven. ... It is the Lord that has done it. God, I know, has done it in kindness to her and to us all, and for his own glory, and yet the tremendous stroke almost slays me."
— Jehu Lewis Shuck
Source: Letter to his father-in-law, Hong Kong, November 1844, on the death of Henrietta Shuck; in J. B. Jeter, A Memoir of Mrs. Henrietta Shuck (1849), pp. 230–232
History, salvation, gospel, hard soil, seed
Views: 238
"Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607), an Italian Jesuit, arrived in Macau in 1579 to study Chinese and set up a school where foreigners could learn the language. In 1583 he and Matteo Ricci were allowed to settle in Zhaoqing, Guangdong; in 1584 he published the first Chinese catechism and baptized several families in the surrounding villages. He left for Europe in 1588 and never returned to China; in retirement at Salerno he translated the Four Books into Latin, and he died in 1607."
— Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia, "Michele Ruggieri"
Traveler, Soul, Justice
Views: 414
"The great root of humaneness lies in reverently loving the Lord on High. The Lord on High is the origin of all living things and the sovereign Master who governs them. The humane believe that He truly exists and that He is supremely good, without the least error; therefore they heed all that He commands, without needing to be compelled. To know how to walk in submission to His will — this is called wisdom."
— Matteo Ricci
Source: Twenty-Five Sayings, no. 13
External things, mind, in accordance with, myself, heaven
Views: 413