1552-1610
Jesuit Missionary

Confucian Scholar. Born at Ancona, Italy, in 1552, Matteo Ricci quickly showed his scholastic aptitude and attractive character. At the age of sixteen he moved to Rome to study law. While there he joined the Society of Jesus in 1570, where he showed a talent for arithmetic and geography. In 1577 he decided to practice his missionary career in Asia, and he arrived in Goa (on the western coast of India) in 1578. Goa was under Portuguese rule. After finishing his spiritual education he lectured in the college there until 1582, when he was called to Macao to prepare himself to visit China. He studied written and spoken Chinese, and in 1583 he became the first Jesuit to enter into China, near Guangzhou in the South although at first he was regarded as only a guest. He began to study Confucianism, and in 1589 he used a Chinese architectural design...