NICOLÒ LONGOBARDI. - Jesuit, missionary, b. at Caltagirone in 1565, d. at Peking on 11 Dec. 1655.
Having arrived at Macao in China in 1597, the following year he began his apostolate, which, fruitful in conversions despite calumnies and grave dangers, was to last almost 60 years. From 1610 to 1622 he was superior of the entire Chinese mission, appointed to that position by the dying Fr. M. Ricci himself; from 1623 to 1640 superior of Peking. He founded the mission in Shantung. In the question of the Chinese names for God, which he raised after Ricci’s death, and then in that of the rites, he defended the most rigid opinion.
Some of his prayer books in Chinese remain, as well as several reports and letters, published only in part.
BIBL.: Sommervogel, IV, cols. 1931-33; D. Bartoli, La Cina, II, Turin 1825, chaps. 167-84; 216; 228; IV, ibid. 1825, chap. 195; P. Tacchi Venturi, Opere storiche del p. M. Ricci, 2 vols., Macerata 1913, V. index; L. Pfister, Notices biog. et bibliogr. sur les Jésuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine, I, Zikawei 1932, pp. 58-66; P. d'Elia, Fonti ricciane, I and II, Rome 1942-45, V. index. Celestino Testore