RICCI, VITTORIO. - Dominican missionary, b. at S. Maria a Cintoia (near Firenze) on 18 Jan. 1621, d. at Parian (a suburb of Manila) on 17 Feb. 1685.
He studied at Fiesole, then at Roma, where in 1643 he met G. B. Morales. In 1648 he left as a missionary for the Philippines. After years of apostolic work among the Chinese of Parian, in July 1655 he landed at Amoy (Fukien, China). For more than a decade he devoted himself to the evangelization of southern China and Formosa amid every kind of difficulty, and began, on behalf of abandoned children, what two centuries later would be called the work of the S. Infanzia. He was provincial vicar of China, apostolic prefect of Formosa and southern China, and was also entrusted with delicate political missions between China and Formosa, and between Formosa and the Philippines. He spent his last fifteen years in the archipelago, often directing convents and collecting memoirs. His principal work was the Istoria della missione de' FF. Predicatori nel regno de' China... dal 1676, used by later historians.