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The Jesuit Diego de Pantoja can be considered a two-way bridge between China and the West. The Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish languages in which he wrote the texts preserved today bear witness to this. A Jesuit in the first stage of evangelization in China, together with Mateo Ricci, SJ, his letters—the subject of our study—bear witness to his interest in realistically presenting the daily and cultural life of China in the West as opposed to the stereotypes that circulated at the time. In turn, he became an ambassador of European culture and science to the Wanli Emperor and his mandarins in the Forbidden City in Beijing.  His missionary and scientific work in the Central Empire has made him in the 21st century a point of reference for the relations of the Papacy and the West with China.

In this documentary, Pope Francis describes the Jesuit, Diego de Pantoja as "the ambassador of Chinese culture to the West." This work examines the influences in social and religious contexts that led Pantoja to embark on his path to the East. Pantoja’s missionary, scientific, and literary work was carried out mainly in Beijing with Matteo Ricci, and mandarins in the Chinese Emperor’s Court in the late Ming Dynasty

This study focuses on two persons of the same family, Antônio e Domingos Monteiro, both involved in the Japan trade, whose way of life was marked by mobility within the coasts of South East Asia, trading in a wide variety of goods. Their network of contacts reveals the presence of members of their kin, especially nephews, as well as merchants from Porto, suggesting that the Portuguese model of emigration to Brazil during the nineteenth century was already at work in Asia. The purveyors of the dead and absentees were in charge of transmitting assets to inheritors in Portugal, but the misericórdias also performed this role, even if in practice the interference of the representatives of the king was impossible to avoid. In spite of the intention of directing the money to mainland Portugal as soon as possible, long voyages, conveniences of maritime trade, royal bureaucracy and judicial litigations transformed transfer into a morose process.

This 1901 diplomatic correspondence, originating from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ General Directorate of Political and Diplomatic Affairs, concerns ecclesiastical jurisdictional negotiations between Portugal and France regarding territories in China. Dated 16 February 1901 and addressed to a high-ranking official, the document records an agreement reached between the Portuguese and French governments on the reassignment of ecclesiastical authority over Hainan Island, previously under the Diocese of Canton prior to the 1876 arrangement between the Vicar General of Macau and the Apostolic Prefect. The agreement stipulates that, in exchange for returning Hainan to the Diocese of Canton, the Bishop of Macau would gain jurisdiction over the Chao-Shing district adjacent to Shean-Chau, where he already exercised ecclesiastical authority. Two key conditions are noted: the necessity of initiating territorial demarcation procedures pending formal approval by the Holy See, and the provisional nature (provisoria tantum ratione) of the jurisdictional transfer. The French Legation in Lisbon communicated its government’s assent to these terms on 20 December 1900 and again on 13 February 1901. The document further references a communication from the Apostolic Nuncio dated 6 October 1900, conveying the Holy See’s requirement for formal ratification and canonical title before final confirmation. This file, part of Section No. 2, File 51, reflects the intersection of colonial diplomacy, Catholic ecclesiastical administration, and international agreements at the turn of the twentieth century.

This 1907 ecclesiastical and diplomatic correspondence, originating from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Diocese of Macau, and colonial administrative offices, documents the protracted negotiations between the Bishop of Macau and the Apostolic Prefect of Canton concerning the exchange of ecclesiastical jurisdictions over Hainan Island and the Shaoqing (or Shew-ing) district. The dispute arose from the implementation of a 1903 decree by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, later clarified by a pontifical rescript of 16 March 1904, which mandated the transfer of Hainan to the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Prefecture of Canton in exchange for the Shaoqing district being assigned to the Diocese of Macau. Despite formal agreement on the territorial exchange, resistance emerged over claims of compensation based on discrepancies in mission property valuations and opposition from French missionaries operating under the Paris Foreign Missions Society. The Bishop of Macau contested demands for financial indemnity, asserting that the papal decrees did not permit such conditions and that prior precedent—specifically the 1874 annexation of Hainan to Macau—had involved no compensation. The file includes official dispatches, telegrams, inventories, and memoranda detailing failed handover attempts, political interventions by the Portuguese and French governments, and the Bishop of Macau’s personal appeal to the Holy See in Rome during 1907. Ultimately, the Holy See reaffirmed the original terms, rejecting additional claims and insisting on the unqualified execution of the jurisdictional exchange. This document provides critical insight into ecclesiastical diplomacy, colonial-era church-state relations, and the interplay between local missionary interests and transnational religious authority in early 20th-century China.

During the dispute between Portugal and the Holy See over the rights of Patronage (Padroado real) in Asia, the Inquisition played a secondary role in the legal allegations of the Crown. In the local context of the controversies with the apostolic vicars sent by the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, priests and missionaries of the Portuguese Padroado saw the Holy Office as an instrument to defend the rights of the Crown, arresting and excommunicating on behalf of the tribunal. Imperial agents in the Estado da Índia envisioned the Inquisition as an instrument for claiming jurisdictional rights over territory, while they also faced conflicts with the inquisitors.

The purpose of this work is to show the process of the first presence of the Salesians in East Timor, between 1927 and 1929. It is a meteoric presence for it did not last two whole years and it is also intriguing due to questions that rose. In fact, how is it possible that the Salesians decided to abandon the Island shortly after a year and a half, when the Salesians had accepted the administration of a school of arts and crafts existing already in Dili (capital of the territory) – after having celebrated a contract with the Bishop of Macau, Josè da Costa Nunes, for a sexennium – what important reasons led the Major Superiors to take such a decision before the bilateral contract celebrated in January 1927 come to an end? Such questions we tried to answer based on existing documents, mostly in the Archivio Salesiano Centrale (Rome) and in the Archive of the Portuguese Salesian Province (Lisbon), to try to dissipate the heavy cloud of mystery that wondered the island and in the range of the Provinces of the Salesians in Portugal and China.

This abstract describes an encrypted official telegram, designated ISR No. 19, dispatched by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Cipher Services on 3 January 1968 to the Portuguese Embassy to the Holy See. The document is marked urgent and confidential, with transmission completed via telex at 20:35 after ciphering concluded at 20:00. Its principal subject concerns the relocation of the Diocese of Macau’s archival collection, confirmed as having been transferred in its entirety to Lisbon and deposited at the Oficinas de São José (St Joseph’s Workshops); only recent administrative files remain in Macau under the custody of Bishop D. Paulo for operational purposes. The telegram functions as a final addendum to Telegram No. 1 and bears marginal annotations indicating internal distribution, including a copy intended for an unspecified division and a right-aligned notation “PAA”, alongside an upper-left archival identifier “960472”. Authored by Farinha Fernandes of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the document carries no visible official seal or stamp and is signed solely by the author. It was printed in a run of 20,000 copies by S. & M., Lda. This source provides direct evidence of mid-twentieth-century Portuguese administrative practices concerning ecclesiastical archives in Macau, reflecting institutional coordination between diplomatic, foreign affairs, and religious authorities during the final decades of Portuguese administration.