Brollo, Basilio, of Gemona

BROLLO, BASILIO, OF GEMONA. - One of the most illustrious Franciscan missionaries, and the first vicar apostolic of Shensi. Born at Gemona in Friuli on 25 March 1648, he entered the Order in 1666 and, having become a priest, was a preacher and professor of philosophy and theology. In 1680 he set out for China with Msgr. Bernardino Della Chiesa, who later appointed him his secretary and vicar general and found in him an intelligent collaborator in visiting the missions of Chekiang, Hukwang and Kweichow. In 1696 he was elected vicar apostolic of Shensi; the bulls, however, did not reach him until 1700; he resumed with zeal and success the apostolate of the Jesuits, his predecessors in the province, restoring life to many Christian communities that had fallen into decay after the death of Fr. Stefano Lefèvre and the persecution of 1665, working not only among the people but also in cultivated circles, given his great knowledge of the language. He died still at a good age, on 16 July 1704. Announcing his death, Card. Sacripanti, prefect of Propaganda, called him «the greatest missionary of that time».

To him is due the first Chinese-Latin vocabulary compiled by a European (Dictionarium sinico-latinum), which, however, remained in manuscript and, reworked, was later published in French by J. De Guignes: Dictionnaire Chinois-français et latin (Paris 1812), without his deigning even to name the true author, which aroused protests on the part of sinologists. A second edition is due to the Franciscans (Hong Kong 1853) and a third to the Jesuits (Hokienfu 1877). Other linguistic works of B. remain in manuscript, besides minor works of a catechetical-apologetic nature, always in Chinese.

Giovanni B. Tragella