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, with Fr. Elia Facchini, he set out as a missionary for China.
Initially assigned to the Christian communities of Hupé, he was soon called to the important river centre of Lao-ho-Kow, where, through his proficiency in the Chinese language and his apostolic zeal, he knew how to gain a foothold in the hostile and unresponsive environment surrounding him. In 1892 he was appointed bishop and apostolic vicar of southern Hunan, at a highly critical moment. Upon hearing of the outbreak of the persecution, in July 1900, with the killing of his missionary, Bl. Cesidio Giacomantonio, at Heng-chow-fu, he hastened with his companion Fr. Gambaro to the place of danger. Recognized and identified, he and his companion were pelted with a hail of stones, and after two hours of agony he died, pierced by a pagan with a bamboo pole tipped with iron (7 July 1900). He was solemnly beatified by Pius XII on 21 Nov. 1946.
ABŪ NASR MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD AL-FĀRĀBĪ. - Medieval Arab philosopher, born near Fārab in Turkestan, died in Damascus in 950-51. Although of Turkish origin, he wrote his numerous works in Arabic. He studied under Christian masters and followed Aristotelian philosophy, so much so that he was called "the second master." He spent most of his life in Baghdad, Aleppo, and Damascus. He was well known under the name Alfarabi or Alpharabius among Latin scholastics. He tempered his Aristotelianism with Platonic philosophy and sought to reconcile it with Islamic doctrines.
Al-Fārābī 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 bestowed eternity upon II. Between God, the absolute One, and creation, the manifold, stand various emanations of which God has knowledge and will. Thus arose the abstract intelligences and the spheres of the seven planets. On the problem of universals, he professes a tempered realism: universals exist ante rem, in re, and post rem. The human intellect is divided into potential intellect, actual intellect, and acquired intellect. The latter is sometimes able to unite with the active intellect and thus attains supreme knowledge.
Some of al-Fārābī's works were translated into Latin, and thus some of his doctrines were referenced by Latin scholasticism. Many of his writings remain unpublished.