南怀仁（南京主教） · 1707 – 1787 · Austrian
Gottfried Xaver von Laimbeckhoven, S.J. (Chinese name Nan Huairen 南怀仁; 9 January 1707 – 22 May 1787) was an Austrian Jesuit and Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Nanjing (15 May 1752 – 22 May 1787). His Chinese name is the same as that of the Belgian priest Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), who served as Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Laimbeckhoven was born in Vienna, Austria, on 9 January 1707, the youngest of the six children of Johann Ferdinand Laimbeckhoven and Elisabeth von Sellenbau. His father was a councillor of the Prince-Bishop of Passau and a mayor, and was raised to the nobility on 9 September 1718.
On 27 January 1722, aged 15, Laimbeckhoven entered the Society of Jesus. He studied first in Leoben and Graz, then studied mathematics and theology in Vienna in preparation for service at the court in Beijing. In 1735, aged 28, he was ordained a priest, and the same year he went to Lisbon to take ship for China.
On 5 August 1738, three years after he left Vienna, his ship reached Macau. It was the time of the century-long prohibition of Christianity: the Qing dynasty forbade missionaries to enter or work in China and persecuted believers. Laimbeckhoven risked going to China to do mission work. He served as a priest in Huguang province. In 1746 he was appointed Visitator. He traveled 11 months a year, 8 months on the water and 3 months in the mountains.
On 15 May 1752, aged 45, Laimbeckhoven was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to succeed Bishop Francesco de Santa Rosa de Viterbo (方主教) as Catholic Bishop of Nanjing. Because communications were poor, however, he did not learn of the appointment until 1754, and he was consecrated in Macau on 20 July 1755. In 1757 he also took charge of the Diocese of Beijing.
In 1752 Laimbeckhoven was appointed Bishop of Nanjing. In his later years Bishop Laimbeckhoven hid in Tangjiaxiang (汤家巷), a village where Catholic believers lived together in Pudong, Songjiang Prefecture (at the site of today's Junmin Road Catholic Church in Zhoupu). Disguised as a farmer or fisherman, he hid in small boats and drifted from place to place to evade capture by the authorities. In 1784, at Tangjiaxiang, he drew up the Zhaoshi Tang Gui [Rules of the Zhaoshi Church] to regulate the religious life of believers during the prohibition.
In 1757, after the death of Bishop Polycarpe de Souza, S.J. (索智能; 1740–1757) of Beijing, Laimbeckhoven administered the Diocese of Beijing for as long as 21 years, until in 1778 the Augustinian Bishop Damascenus Salutti, O.S.A. (安德义; 1778–1781) succeeded as Bishop of Beijing. In 1775 Bishop Laimbeckhoven, in Beijing, had to order the dissolution of the Society of Jesus.
On 22 May 1787 (the 52nd year of Qianlong), Bishop Laimbeckhoven died at Tangjiaxiang in Pudong, Shanghai, aged 80. He was buried at Baihe Mountain (白鹤山) in Suzhou (today Chaohong Village in the Suzhou High-Tech Zone).
Bishop Laimbeckhoven did mission work in China for as long as 49 years. Two far-reaching events affected his stay: the Chinese Rites Controversy and, as already mentioned, the suppression of the Society of Jesus. There were also disputes within the mission itself, especially in the period 1774-1789.
Besides pastoral letters, including three letters in Chinese, Bishop Laimbeckhoven also wrote an account of his journey from Genoa by way of Lisbon to Macau (1735 to 1738). Apart from official letters, he also corresponded extensively with relatives and friends.