FANTOSATI, Antonino, Blessed. - Born at S. Maria in Valle, a suburb of Trevi, on 16 Oct. 1842. At the age of 16 he entered the Franciscan Order in the Umbrian province, and at 23 he was a priest. In 1867 he set out as a missionary for China with Fr. Elia Facchini.
First assigned to the Christian communities of Hupeh, he was soon called to the important river center of Lao-ho-Kow, where, through his mastery of the Chinese language and his apostolic zeal, he knew how to insinuate himself into the hostile and refractory environment that surrounded him. In 1892 he was appointed bishop and vicar apostolic of southern Hunan, at a very critical moment. At the announcement of the outbreak of the persecution, in July 1900, with the killing of his missionary the blessed Cesidio Giacomantonio at Heng-chow-fu, he was with his companion Fr. Gambaro as if at the place of danger. Spotted and identified, he was, together with his companion, covered by a hail of stones, and after two hours of agony he died, run through by a pagan with a bamboo pole tipped with iron (7 July 1900). He was solemnly beatified by Pius XII on 21 Nov. 1946.
Bibliography3 works
Alberto Ghinara
BI-FĀRĀBI, ABŪ NASR MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD. - Medieval Arab philosopher, b. near Fārab in Turkestan, d. at Damascus in 950-51. Although of Turkish origin, he wrote his numerous works in Arabic. He studied under the guidance of Christian masters and followed Aristotelian philosophy, so much so that he came to be called "the second master." He spent most of his life at Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. He was well known under the name of Alfarabi or Alpharabius to the Latin scholastics. He tempered his Aristotelianism with the philosophy of Plato and sought to reconcile it with Islamic doctrines.
al-F. distinguishes between the essence of things and their existence. In God he sees not only the first beloved but also the first lover. God created the world from nothing, outside of time, and conferred eternity upon it. Between God, the absolute one, and the created order, the multiple, stand various emanations, of whose varied occurrence God has knowledge and will. Thus the abstract intelligences and the spheres of the seven planets came into being. On the problem of universals he professes a tempered realism: universals are ante rem, in re and post rem. The human intellect is divided into intellect in potency, intellect in act and acquired intellect. The latter is sometimes able to unite with the active intellect and thus attains the highest knowledge.
Some writings of al-F. were translated into Latin, and therefore some of his doctrines are cited by Latin scholasticism. Many of his writings are still unpublished.
Bibliography6 works
Giuseppe Furlan