MORALES, JUAN BAUTISTA de. - Dominican missionary, b. at Ecija (Andalusia) ca. 1597, d. at Funing (China) on 17 Sept. 1664. A religious in his homeland, around 1620 he set out as a missionary for Manila; he then evangelized Cambodia (1629-33), and afterwards penetrated into the Empire of the Mongols.

He devoted himself with the greatest zeal to the conversion of the infidels. He often suffered persecutions and tortures; he was also scourged and mortally wounded for the sake of the faith. He took part in the discussion on the question of the Chinese rites against the Jesuits, to resolve which he was sent to Rome (1643). Having returned to China (1649), he was always a careful guardian of the purity of the faith. He wrote many short works on the controversy over the Chinese rites; among these: Quaesita septemdecim (Rome 1645), presented to the Congregation of Rites. He also wrote a Historia evangelica del reyno de la China, a Life of St. Dominic in Chinese, a vocabulary and a grammar of the Chinese language, which he knew to perfection.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Acta Cap. gen. O. P., VIII, ed. B. Reichert (Mon. O. P. Hist., 13), Rome 1903, p. 142; Quétif-Echard, II, pp. 611-13; B. Biermann, Anfänge der neueren Dominikanermission in China, Münster in W. 1927, passim.

Alfonso D'Amato

@incollection{ec8_morales_juan_bautista_de, author = {D'Amato, Alfonso}, title = {Morales, juan bautista de}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1398}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/morales-juan-bautista-de} }

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Morales, Juan Bautista de

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