CABALLERO, ANTONIO DE S

CABALLERO, ANTONIO de S. MARIA. — Franciscan friar, prefect of the Franciscan mission in China. Born at Baltanás in the province of Valenza on 20 April 1602, died at Canton on 13 May 1669. In 1618 he entered the Discalced Franciscans of the province of S. Paolo and completed his studies at the University of Salamanca. In 1628, with 29 companions, he went as a missionary to the Philippine Islands, where he first taught rhetoric and theology while devoting himself at the same time to the study of the Japanese language and the care of lepers. Invited by Fr. Angelo Cocchi (q.v.), a Dominican, he went to China, where he founded new Christian communities, and from 1636 took part in the controversy over the Chinese Rites, on which he wrote extensively and traveled widely. In 1640 he was at Macao, and after a most perilous voyage with his companion and some Poor Clare nuns, he finally landed at Malina, where he began a new apostolate. In 1649 he returned to China and worked in Huating, where in 1662 it was said that he had already converted 3,000 Chinese. The fanatical leaders of the people, angered by this, stirred up the cruel persecution of 1664, in which Fr. Antonio, together with his companion Fr. Giovanni Valat, a Jesuit, was first imprisoned on the spot and then exiled to Canton, where, worn out by hardships and illness, he ended his life. He left 32 letters and various reports concerning his mission.