VERBIEST, FERDINAND. - Jesuit, missionary and astronomer at the Court of Peking, b. at Pitthem, near Courtrai (Belgium) on 29 Oct. 1623, d. at Peking on 28 Jan. 1688.
Having entered the Order in 1641 and completed his studies at Seville, he set out in 1658 with 35 other missionaries for China, where, having arrived in 1659, he worked for some time in Shen-si, then in 1660 was called to Peking as collaborator and eventual successor of Fr. Adam Schall in the direction of the astronomical Observatory founded by him. The persecution of 1664, stirred up during the minority of the Emperor K'ang-hsi, threw him into prison, but the resounding victory won in an astronomical contest with the persecuting mandarin, who had taken Fr. Schall's place as president of the Tribunal of Mathematics, restored European science to honor and procured for him and his companions the freedom to resume preaching. In 1666 V. succeeded Fr. Schall in the presidency of the Tribunal, ever more accompanied by the esteem and confidence of the Emperor, who wished to become for five months his assiduous pupil in learning the sciences and Christian doctrine; and V. nourished for a long time the hope of converting him, which did not happen. For him V. built 6 astronomical instruments, all of brass, artistically worked, which are still preserved and until the Boxer war of 1900 could be seen on the tower of the imperial Palace, where V. had placed them; and he moreover cast 132 cannons, of far greater power than those possessed by the Chinese. Raised by the Emperor to the 1st degree of the 2nd order of mandarins, V. used his high position for the success of the missionary work, which he also directed, as vice-provincial, from 1676 to 1680. Against the accusations, brought as far as Rome, of Fr. F. D. Navarrete concerning the method employed by the Jesuit missionaries, V. was able to send a full defense of his own conduct, which earned him from Innocent XI, with the brief of 3 Dec. 1681, an ample justification for his worthy scientific work, so useful to the faith and to the conversion of the pagans.
As vice-provincial he vigorously advocated the cause of the indigenous clergy and that of the introduction of the Chinese language into theology and the liturgy, for which he sought to obtain the confirmation of the concessions already given by Paul V in 1615, and he sent to the Pope as a gift the Chinese version of the Missal, made by Fr. L. Buglio. For the Emperor and for the Christians he composed many short works on religion, astronomy, physics, mechanics, geography. Worthy of remembrance above all, besides the numerous correspondence, are his Astronomia eterna dell'Imperatore K'ang-hsi (32 vols., Peking 1678), in which he determines the course of the planets and the solar and lunar eclipses for 2000 subsequent years; and the Manuale della dottrina cattolica (ibid. 1669; several times published and translated into Tatar, Korean and French) which the Emperor wished, for its classical style, to catalog among the books of the imperial library. His tomb is at Ciala, near Peking, beside those of Fr. Ricci and Fr. Schall.
Bibliography14 works
Celestino Testore