RICCI, MATTEO. — Jesuit, pioneer of Catholic missions in China, b. at Macerata on 6 Oct. 1552, d. at Peking on 11 May 1610.
After attending the Jesuit College in his homeland, he studied law in Rome for two years, after which he entered the Society of Jesus on 15 Aug. 1571. During his philosophy courses at the Roman College, he followed the mathematics lectures (understood in the much broader sense of the time) of the celebrated Fr. Clavius. He embarked from Lisbon on 5 Mar. 1577, reached Goa in 1578, where he completed his studies and was ordained a priest, and in 1582 Macao in China, where he applied himself to the study of the Chinese language and literature, as he was destined, together with Fr. M. Ruggieri, to break through the barrier of that great Empire, which prevented missionaries and the faith from entering and to reach, as a final goal, Peking, the Court, and the Emperor himself. Such was the objective assigned to the two missionaries by the forward-looking visitor, Fr. A. Valignano; but it took 18 years of labor and waiting to achieve II. Ricci, in fact, entered China in 1583 and was able to establish his residence in Shaoqing, where he soon gained renown among the local scholars, to whom he showed various objects brought from Europe, including a world map and a statue of the Virgin with the Child in her arms, which he placed at the entrance of his house, and he made the first conversions.
When the prefect of Canton, under whose jurisdiction Shaoqing fell, was changed, he was expelled from his residence and moved in 1589
to Zhaozhou, and then to Nanjing, where he remained until 1598. In 1601, thanks to the favor of the Grand Secretary Zhang, he finally reached Peking, where he was received by the Emperor Wanli, who granted him permission to reside there and to preach the Christian faith. From that moment on, his apostolate flourished, and he was able to establish numerous Christian communities, especially among the literati, whom he impressed with his knowledge of science and philosophy, as well as with his moral conduct.
Ricci’s scientific and cultural contributions are immense. He introduced Western science to China, particularly mathematics, astronomy, and geography, correcting and perfecting Chinese maps and calendars. Among his works, mention should be made of the various increasingly refined editions of world maps (cf. P. D’Elia, *Il mappamondo cinese del p. M. Ricci*, translated and annotated, Rome 1938) and his history of the Chinese mission, which remained unpublished until our time and was published by Fr. Tacchi Venturi under the title *Opere storiche del p. M. Ricci* (2 vols., I, *Commentari della Cina*, Macerata 1911; II, *Lettere*, ibid. 1913) and by Fr. D’Elia under the title *Fonti Ricciane: Storia dell’introduzione del Cristianesimo in Cina* (3 vols., Rome 1942-49), with extensive use of Chinese sources, updated bibliography, appendices, and indices; further volumes on his letters and other works are to follow.
As for the legend that Ricci was a pious conciliator of beliefs in the sense of advocating a kind of syncretism to the detriment of doctrine, cf. P. D’Elia, *Il dogma cattolico integralmente presentato da M. Ricci ai letterati della Cina*, in *Civiltà Cattolica*, 1935, II, pp. 35-53. On the question of the name of God and of rites,