FRANCESCO BRANCATI. - Missionary in China, b. in Palermo in 1607, received into the Society of Jesus in 1623. Having arrived in China in 1637, he carried out almost all his activity in Kiang-nan, in Shanghai and in nearby cities. There he brought about a magnificent development for the Church, with an average of more than a thousand baptisms a year. A characteristic of his work was the organization of Congregations for the various classes of the faithful. In 1665, all the missionaries were summoned to Peking and from there exiled to Canton. B. died in that city on 26 April 1671, shortly after the sentence that granted freedom to the Fathers.
He wrote various catechetical works in Chinese, almost all of which were still being reprinted in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as