Enciclopedia Cattolica

TRIGAULT, NICOLAS

Volume XII · p. 343 · 1954

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

TRIGAULT, NICOLAS. — Jesuit, missionary, and explorer, b. at Douai on 3 March 1577, d. at Nanking on 14 November 1628.

He entered the Order in 1594 and departed in 1606 with Fr. Adamo Schall for the missions of East Asia; in 1610 he was in Macao and shortly thereafter in China. But he remained there only two years, during which he was able to acquire a knowledge—if not extensive, then reliable—of the state of the mission, because at the end of 1612 Fr. N. Longobardi sent him to Europe to deal with various matters in Rome. He made the journey by land, crossing India, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, and arrived in Rome in 1615. There, having supplied the necessary information, he sought and obtained substantial alms, especially from the dukes of Bavaria; he collected a large quantity of books, a treasure that remains, even today, among the most precious possessions of the former mission of Peking; he obtained from Paul V (brief of 26 March 1615) extensive privileges in favor of the Chinese Christian community, including permission for the liturgy to be celebrated in the Chinese language of the learned and the use of a head covering during the celebration of Mass, since in China no solemn act could be performed bareheaded. Of these concessions, only that concerning the head covering was implemented; the others were not, and the reason is not yet clear. In 1617 he resumed his return journey with 44 new Jesuit missionaries and devoted himself to composing further works.

His principal work is De christiana expeditione apud Sinas, suscepta a Societate Jesu, ex P. Ricci Commentoris (Augsburg 1615), soon translated into various languages and of great importance for the information it contains; various letters also survive concerning his voyage in India (Cologne 1620), his work in Rome (v. BIBLICA), while the account of his overland journey from China to Rome remains unpublished. He also published: De christianis apud Japonios triumphis... et de gravissima presecutione exorta anno 1612 usque 1620 (Munich 1623); Vita Gasparis Barzaei (Antwerp 1610).

BIBL.: Sommervogel, VII, 237–44; Streit, V, p. 708 and passim—Studies; C. Deshaines, Vie du p. N. T. de la C. de J., Tournai 1864; H. Bosmans, Docum. relatifs à la liturgie chinoise, in Anal. Boll., 33 (1914), pp. 274–83; A. Brou, Notes pour servir à l'hist. du clergé indigène en Chine, in Rev. d'hist. des Missions, 3 (1926), pp. 519–40; L. Pfister, Nature, biogr. et bibliogr. sur les Jésuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine, I, Shanghai 1933, pp. 111–20; A. Vith, J. A. Schall von Bell S. I., Cologne 1933, pp. 31–44; A. M. Beghedo, I doni del Duca di Parma Ranuccio I Farnese per l'Imperatore della Cina, in Le Missioni ill., 35 (1938), pp. 280–86; E. Lamalle, La propagande du p. N. T. en faveur des missions de Chine (1616), in Arch. hist. S. I., 9 (1940), pp. 49–120 (unpublished letter by T. concerning his work in Rome, pp. 90–120). On the De christiana expeditione, derived from the work of Fr. M. Ricci, its value, etc., V. P. D'Elia, Daniele Bartoli e N. T., in Rev. stor. ital., 5th series, 3 (1938), pp. 77–92; id., Fonti ricciane, III, Rome 1949, index, pp. 276–77. Celestino Testore
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“TRIGAULT, NICOLAS.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII (1954), p. 343. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/trigault-nicolas.