JOHN OF MONTECORVINO. - First bishop of Khambalik (Peking). Born in 1247 at Montecorvino (Salerno), died at Khambalik in 1328. According to his contemporary Giovanni de Marignolli, before becoming a Franciscan friar he had been a soldier, a judge and a physician, which leads us to suppose that he came from a distinguished family. Rigid and austere, he perhaps belonged to the current of the Spirituals (v.) or zealots. Before 1289 he had already been sent, probably by the minister general Fra Bonagrazia (1273-83), to Persia and Armenia as a missionary, whence in that year he returned to Europe as legate of King Hethum II of Armenia to Pope Nicholas IV. The Pope in turn made use of him for an embassy to many Eastern peoples, and especially to the Great Khan of China. With pontifical credentials he set out on 15 July 1289 from Rieti, where the papal Curia was staying, and landed at Antioch, then set off toward Sis, the capital of Armenia, and afterwards to Tauris (Tabriz), in Persia. From there in 1291, with the Dominican Niccolò da Pistoia, who died during the journey, and a wealthy Italian merchant, he made his way by sea to Khambalik, where he arrived between 1294 and 1295, welcomed with Eastern pomp as ambassador of the Pope. A letter written from India gives information about his journey.
At Khambalik he lived for 34 years, carrying on an active apostolate in the city and in the Tatar Empire. He built 3 churches and convents at Khambalik, a church and convent at Yangtchon (in Kiang-su), 3 churches and convents at Zaytong (in Fukien); other churches and Christian communities in Tchekiang, in Tenduc and at Armalik (Kulgia). He established two orphanages for boys at Khambalik and a kind of small seminary where he gathered 40 children whom he instructed in Latin, in singing and in ecclesiastical ceremonies. Having soon and well mastered the language, he translated the Saliccio and the New Testament.
He baptized many thousands of unbelievers, but encountered grave difficulties in his ministry, especially from the Nestorians. In 1305 (8 Jan.) and 1306 (13 Feb.) he wrote two letters in which he gave an account of his work and solicited help, above all in personnel; in consequence of these the Supreme Pontiff and the minister general of the Franciscans sent a great expedition with 7 bishops, charged with retaining the same G. da M. as archbishop of Khambalik and patriarch of all the East, which was carried out between 1309 and 1310. In 1322 Odoric of Pordenone arrived at Khambalik, and in 1328 G. died.
The great work, which he had set well under way, for various reasons, among them the diminished European contacts with China, gradually died out, and from 1370 there is no further news of this first evangelization of China.