RIPA, MATTEO. – Founder of the College of the Chinese in Naples, b. at Eboli (Salerno) on 29 March 1682, d. at Naples in 1746. After a period of dissipated living, he donned the clerical habit at Naples on 26 May 1701; he went to Rome in 1705. In 1707 Clement XI called him to take part in the mission that was to carry the cardinal’s hat to Msgr. Carlo Maillard de Tournon, legate in China. R. arrived at Macao in 1710. After Tournon’s death on 12 July 1710, R., whom Tournon had accredited for this purpose, learned the Chinese language at Canton and arrived in Peking at the court of the emperor K'anghi on 6 February 1711 as an artist, carrying out missionary activity and acting as a papal representative.
Opposed by the missionaries, he left Peking with five Chinese men and rich gifts on 15 November 1723, landed at Naples on 11 November 1724, and in March 1725 obtained permission from Rome to found in that city a college for the training of Chinese priests. For this purpose he established the Congregation of Secular Priests, or College of the Holy Family of Jesus Christ, approved by a brief of 7 April 1732, which assumed its administration. The College was intended to train young Chinese aspiring to the priesthood; pupils from territories under Turkish rule were soon added to them. In addition to the property left by R., it was subsequently endowed also by the popes. Following the occupation of the Kingdom in 1860, the College underwent various vicissitudes until, after the suppression of the Congregation, its property was liquidated and assigned to secular purposes.