安文思 · 1610 – 1677 · Portuguese
Gabriel de Magalhães (安文思) was born in 1610 in Pedrógão near Coimbra, Portugal, into a distinguished family of the same clan as the navigator Magellan. He entered the Society of Jesus young, resolved to go far to the East to preach the gospel. He first went to Goa in Portuguese India, where he served for about six years, gaining practice in missionary work, and then came east by sea.
In 1640 Magalhães reached Hangzhou, and soon afterwards he was sent to Sichuan. In August 1642 he arrived in Chengdu, where he and the Italian Jesuit Lodovico Buglio (利类思) became close friends and co-workers; he learned Chinese from Buglio, and together they opened the mission in Chengdu and the surrounding prefectures and counties. The two had intended to work deeply in Sichuan, but the situation suddenly changed.
In 1644 Zhang Xianzhong (张献忠) led his forces into Sichuan and set up the Great Xi regime, bringing devastation on every side. Magalhães and Buglio were forcibly kept in service at his court, and lived through the massacres and upheaval without changing their convictions. In 1647 Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and killed by the Qing army, and the two were captured by the Qing general Hooge (豪格). In that moment of danger Magalhães claimed the German Jesuit in the capital, Johann Adam Schall von Bell (汤若望), as his "elder brother," and so escaped harm. In 1648 he and Buglio were escorted under guard to Beijing, where instead they received courteous treatment from the Shunzhi Emperor, who granted them a church, a residence and a stipend, so that they could resume the work of the Church in the emperor's own capital.
During his decades in Beijing, Magalhães was valued at court for his skill with intricate machinery. He was in charge of making, repairing and maintaining the Western chiming clocks and mechanical devices in the palace, and with his own hands made sets of bells, tower clocks and other pieces that could play Chinese tunes on the hour, winning the appreciation of both the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors. Together with Buglio he also founded the East Church of Beijing, St. Joseph's Church, laying a foundation for the Catholic Church in the capital.
Alongside his missionary work, Magalhães wrote steadily. From 1650 he began a work describing China in detail; it took 18 years and was finished in 1668, giving a systematic introduction to China's history, language, customs and system of government. After his death members of his order carried it back to Europe, and it was published in Paris in 1688 under the title Zhongguo Xinzhi (A New Account of China), becoming one of the most comprehensive and precise accounts of China available to Europe at the time.
On May 6, 1677, Magalhães died of illness in Beijing at the age of 67. The Kangxi Emperor personally composed an elegiac address to mark his mourning, granted 200 taels of silver and 10 bolts of fine satin, and had him buried with honours in the Zhalan cemetery outside the city. He travelled thousands of miles in his life and did not waver in his purpose through times of turmoil; he served the ruler with his mechanical skill and linked East and West with his writing, giving most of his life's loyalty and learning to China. After his death he was honoured by the Qing court and remembered by later generations.