Matteo Ricci

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The Venerable Matteo Ricci SJ
1610 Chinese portrait of Ricci
Title	Superior General of the China mission
Personal
Born	6 October 1552 Macerata, Papal States
Died	11 May 1610(1610-05-11) (aged 57) Beijing, Ming Empire
Resting place	Zhalan Cemetery, Beijing
Religion	Catholic Church
Notable work(s)	Kunyu Wanguo Quantu
Organization
Order	Society of Jesus
Senior posting
Period in office	1597–1610
Successor	Nicolò Longobardo
Reason for exit	His death

Matteo Ricci SJ (Italian: [matˈtɛːo ˈrittʃi]; Latin: Matthaeus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See declared its recognition of Ricci's heroic virtues, thereby bestowing upon him the honorific of Venerable.^[1]

Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China. He mastered the Chinese language and writing system. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by the Wanli Emperor, who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendrical science. He emphasized parallels between Catholicism and Confucianism but opposed Buddhism. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism. He also worked with several Chinese elites, such as Xu Guangqi, in translating Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin for the first time in history.