Matteo Ripa

Origins and Calling

Matteo Ripa was born on 29 March 1682 in the small town of Eboli, in the Salerno area of southern Italy. He was shaped by the Catholic faith from childhood, resolved as a young man to devote himself to the priesthood, and was later ordained, becoming a secular priest. At that time the Holy See had set up the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) to oversee overseas missions. Sent by it, Ripa resolved to go far to the East and bring the gospel to distant China. He was not a Jesuit; he set out on this long and dangerous journey as a priest of Propaganda Fide.

At the Kangxi Court

In about 1710 Ripa reached China by sea; in 1711 he was summoned to Beijing to serve at the court of the Kangxi Emperor. He took the Chinese name Ma Guoxian (马国贤), and from then on served in the Forbidden City for thirteen years. The Kangxi Emperor admired Western arts and wanted someone to engrave maps on copper. When he asked the few newly arrived missionaries, only Ripa answered the call, saying that he knew something of optics and also understood the theory, though not the practice, of etching copperplates with nitric acid. He was one of the first to introduce the art of copperplate engraving to China systematically. In about 1713, by imperial order, he completed the copperplate engravings of the Thirty-Six Views of the Mountain Resort (避暑山庄三十六景图), depicting in fine detail the gardens and scenery of the imperial retreat at Rehe (now Chengde). This became an important page in the history of artistic exchange between China and the West, and it also bears witness to the years this priest quietly served at a foreign court.

Taking Students Back to Europe

Alongside his life at court, Ripa never forgot his original purpose of mission. He knew well that the foundations of the Chinese church must in the end be carried by the Chinese themselves. In December 1723 he left Beijing for Europe, taking with him four young Chinese Christians, Gu Ruowang (顾若望), Yin Ruowang (殷若望), Huang Feilibo (黄斐理伯) and Wu Lujue (吴禄爵), together with a Chinese-language teacher. His hope was to bring these young men to Naples, train them as priests, and send them back to China to shepherd their own people.

Founding the Collegio dei Cinesi

After his return to Europe, the road to founding the college proved far harder than expected and went through many setbacks. Only in 1732, with the approval of Pope Clement XII, was the Collegio dei Cinesi formally established in Naples. It was the first institution in Europe devoted to training Chinese clergy and to Chinese and Oriental studies, and it later developed into today's University of Naples "L'Orientale." In his later years he wrote a memoir of what he had seen and heard in China, leaving it to later generations.

Death and Remembrance

On 29 March 1746 Ripa died in Naples, on the very day of his sixty-fourth birthday. His whole life linked East and West: he left an artistic mark at the Kangxi court and opened the way for a self-standing Chinese church, and his dedication is still remembered today.