He entered the Order in 1641 and completed his studies at Seville, departing in 1658 with 35 other missionaries for China, where he arrived in 1659. After working for a time in Shensi, he was summoned to Peking in 1660 as assistant and eventual successor to Fr. Adam Schall in the direction of the astronomical observatory founded by the latter. The persecution of 1664, which arose during the minority of Emperor K’ang-hsi, threw him into prison, but his resounding victory in an astronomical contest with the persecuting mandarin—who had taken Schall’s place as president of the Tribunal of Mathematics—restored European science to honor and secured for him and his companions the freedom to resume preaching.
In 1666 Verbiest succeeded Schall as president of the Tribunal, enjoying ever greater esteem and confidence from the Emperor, who for five months took lessons from him in the sciences and Christian doctrine. Verbiest long nurtured the hope of converting the Emperor, though this did not come to pass. For him he constructed six astronomical instruments, all of brass, finely wrought, which are still preserved and could be seen until the Boxer War of 1900 on the tower of the Imperial Palace, where Verbiest had placed them; he also cast 132 cannon, of far greater power than those possessed by the Chinese. Elevated by the Emperor to the first rank of the second order of mandarins, Verbiest used his high position to advance the mission, which he also directed as vice-provincial from 1676 to 1680.
Against the accusations, brought as far as Rome, of Fr. F. D. Navarrete regarding the methods employed by the Jesuit missionaries, Verbiest was able to send a full defense of his own work, which earned him from Innocent XI, by the brief of 3 Dec. 1681, ample vindication for his worthy scientific labors, so useful to the faith and the conversion of the pagans.
As vice-provincial he vigorously championed the cause of the native clergy and the introduction of the Chinese language into theology and liturgy, seeking to secure confirmation of the concessions already granted by Paul V in 1615, and presenting to the Pope as a gift the Chinese version of the Missal made by Fr. L. Buglio. For the Emperor and for Christians he composed many small works on religion, astronomy, physics, mechanics, and geography. Chief among these, besides his voluminous correspondence, is his *Astronomia Europaea* (32 vols., Peking 1678), in which he determined the courses of the planets and the solar and lunar eclipses for the next two thousand years; and the *Manuale doctrinae catholicae* (ibid. 1669; often cited and translated into Tartar, Korean, and French), which the Emperor wished to have catalogued among the books of the imperial library on account of its classical style. His tomb is at Zhalan, near Peking, beside those of Fr. Ricci and Fr. Schall.