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Abstract Food-related encounters represented an important convivial and cross-cultural component in the Jesuit-led Catholic missions in China. By adopting a longue durée perspective from the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, this article engages with both visual and textual sources related to Sino-European culinary encounters in the context of the Jesuit missions in China. These encounters offer valuable insights into the daily activities of Jesuit missionaries and their interlocutors, including Chinese literati, converts, and non-Christian individuals. This article examines several case studies, ranging from early modern accounts of Chinese food practices to nineteenth-century Catholic texts and primers for children published in Shanghai, providing examples of the relevance of food practices. It also considers the broader significance of culinary practices for Catholic missionaries from different orders in China.

In some of the earliest Chinese works written by Catholic missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty, St. Augustine became associated with the mystery of t...

Resumen El presente ensayo tiene como objetivo explorar el papel que las mujeres y, en particular, las religiosas presentes en los confines asiáticos de los imperios hispánico y portugués desempeñaron en la configuración de una suerte de catolicismo ibérico. Se interroga acerca de las condiciones que en dichos espacios definieron sus formas de vida y sus interacciones con los contextos sociales y culturales en los que se integraron. No sólo considera la capacidad que tuvieron estas religiosas para intervenir sobre el espacio público mediante visiones, escritos y devociones que contribuyeron en último término a reforzar las identidades religiosas y los vínculos políticos entre los territorios de las monarquías portuguesa y española. Plantea asimismo cuestiones que inciden sobre lo contextos misioneros que las rodeaban y el modo en el que articularon las obligaciones de clausura y oración con la movilidad y con una clara vocación de participación en las tareas de conversión. A tal efecto, la investigación analizará la trayectoria vital la religiosa clarisa María Magdalena de la Cruz, quien, en la década de 1620, viajó desde Sevilla a Manila, participando en la conocida expedición comandada por Jerónima de la Asunción. En 1633, se trasladó a Macao con el fin de fundar un nuevo convento en este enclave sino-portugués, y aún paso un tiempo en la Cochinchina, donde en parte pudo dar curso a sus aspiraciones apostólicas. Conocida por sus visiones, dejó constancia de sus experiencias contemplativas en un extenso tratado ‘inmaculista’, titulado Floresta franciscana, que compuso bajo los auspicios de su confesor.

Abstract Dating back many years, Marian devotion is currently a ubiquitous phenomenon among Vietnamese Catholics in Vietnam. This article examines the endeavours of specific global Catholic missionary societies – the Society of Jesus (S.J.), the Dominican Order or the Order of Preachers (O.P.) and the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (mep) – in spreading Marian devotion in pre-twentieth-century Vietnam. In doing so, the article seeks to demonstrate that the prevalence of Marian devotion primarily resulted from the enduring efforts of global Catholic missionaries during the stages of proselytization. This argument aims to challenge the prevailing notion that the primordial Vietnamese cultural identity, widely known for emphasizing female status and Mother Goddess worship, exerted its influence on the elevation of Marian devotion among Vietnamese Catholics during the course of history.

This essay is to illustrate the inter-cultural features involved in the Chinese Rites Controversy, which had a devastating impact on the Chinese missionary endeavor. The 1659 instruction by Propaganda Fide, also known as the Magna Charta of the Congregation, obliged apostolic vicars and all missionaries in eastern Asia, including China, to carry out the missionary practice of adaptation. Missionaries were prohibited from combating local customs and traditions, except when they were in obvious contradiction to faith or morals. The directives also included the invitation for the promotion of indigenous clergy. The instructions were quite innovative, just as innovative was the missionary method envisaged by Francesco Ingoli, Propaganda Fide’s first director. Sadly enough, the ground-breaking directives were not put into practice, quite paradoxically, exactly by Apostolic Vicars and missionaries sent by Propaganda Fide. Subsequent pronouncements by Propaganda Fide and by the same Pontifices contradicted early openness. Proposals coming from China for the promotion of Chinese clergy and liturgical adaptation were disapproved. At the end of the Rites Controversy, Chinese Christians were forced to discontinue the practice of the traditional rites in honour of the ancestors. The Rites Controversy was initiated in Fujian province in mid-1635. Dominican and Franciscan missionaries objected to the evangelization method introduced to China by Matteo Ricci and Giulio Aleni. Propaganda Fide and the Holy See were called in to declare whether the Christians were allowed to participate in the ancestral rituals. In contradiction with 1659’s Instruction, Rome was unable to make a coherent decision, and the controversy dragged on. Pope Clement XI was determined to disapprove the Rites hoping, at the same time, to save China Mission from destruction. Sadly, the two objectives could not be achieved together. In 1742, Benedict XIV condemned the Rites in the most solemn fashion, putting to a definitive end China Mission as envisaged by Matteo Ricci.

The Franciscan presence in China is one of the first expressions of the Chinese encounter with Christianity. Despite the significant number of preserv...

The article presents the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus. After the parts devoted to recollecting its history, discussing its structure and resources, a great deal of information was given on the realities of the institution’s daily work in recent years. Elements of statistics and bibliographic indications referring to the literature on the subject are accompanied by general considerations relating to the archives.

The French Religious Protectorate enabled France to act as the guardian of Catholics in China. After the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin, it protected Catholic missions and missionaries and was accepted as a diplomatic arrangement by the main international actors. While not being a signatory to the Protectorate, the Catholic Church complied with its terms and accepted French diplomatic representation in matters of Chinese affairs. The agreement involved all missionaries from different countries in China, including those of Italian origin. Inevitably, over time, the Protectorate became a controversial question because it exposed the Church’s pastoral mission to interferences from foreign powers. In November 1928, Italy signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with China, enhancing political relations under Chiang Kai-shek’s leadership. It was the beginning of a new age of cooperation and reciprocities based on strong political affinities. A few months later, on 11 February 1929, Italy and the Holy See signed the Lateran Pacts, reestablishing diplomatic relations after Rome’s annexation to the Kingdom in 1870. Benito Mussolini saw the importance of aligning with the Church to gain the support of Catholics and strengthen his leadership. These agreements bolstered cooperation between the regime and the Church in domestic and international affairs. In China, the cooperation allowed the Church to gradually shift away from French diplomatic interference and finally attempt to connect, free of constraints, with the Chinese Nationalist government.

This article examines the acclamation of King João IV at Macau in 1642, with special attention to an account of the pageantry that followed the arrival of the news from Portugal. The discussion has three parts. One considers the colony’s social and religious climate in the years leading up to the event. The next looks into the dramatic change of mood that followed in its wake. The third part investigates the well-known source describing the ceremonies. The contrast between a colony rent by division and one united by common purpose is so striking that it raises important questions about the historical source that describes the acclamation.

RESUMO: A celebração de rituais públicos era um momento privilegiado de representação das hierarquias sociais de cada território. Um dos maiores desafios que a historiografia tem enfrentado resulta da dificuldade em avaliar a forma como as populações locais entendiam a celebração ritual a partir dos seus próprios quadros culturais, especialmente quando se trata de grupos extraeuropeus e não convertidos. Partindo deste problema, este texto pretende analisar o modo como as autoridades chinesas olhavampara alguns dos rituais públicos, especialmente os de natureza religiosa, que tiveram lugar em Macau, tendo por base a obra Aomen ji lüe, da autoria de Yin Guangren e Zhang Rulin, preparada entre 1751 e 1757.1 PALAVRAS-CHAVE: China; Macau; Ásia; Rituais religiosos; Mandarins. ABSTRACT: The celebration of public rituals was a privileged moment of social hierarchy representation in each territory. One of the biggest challenges historiography faces is the result of the difficulty in evaluating how local populations understood the ritual celebration taking their own cultural framing as a starting point, especially when referring to non-converted and non-European groups. Given this problem, this article analyses the way in which Chinese authorities regarded some of the public rituals, especially the religious ones, which occurred in Macau, using Yin Guangren e Zhang Rulin’s Aomen ji lüe (1751-1757) as a reference. KEYWORDS: China; Macau; Asia; Religious rituals; Mandarins.

In the 16th century, the first Spanish and Portuguese Dominican missionaries arrived in Southeast Asia, included Vietnam, but only after the first decades of the seventeenth century, Christianity began to take hold and lived through different episodes of the Proclamation of the Christian faith: first it was tolerated and then abandoned by the dynasties, supported by the colonialists, declined in the north by the communists, it expanded in the south under the Republic of Vietnam and stabilized until now after the reunification of the country followed by a long breakage due to political change. Along with this story, sacred architecture was interpreted in various ways to define identities in religious life and faith. However, the most difficult period of religious architecture is not only in the political conflict of the past, but also until now, the time of the economic boom. The change of values as well as the aesthetic system make sacred art and architecture remain a giant wheel stuck in mud.

From the end of the 16 th century to the beginning of the 17 th century, under the direction of the archdiocese in Macao (China), Jesuit missionaries set foot in China and Vietnam in turn to preach the Gospel and convert believers in these two countries. The main reason for the success of the Jesuits was the use of appropriate missionary methods and advocating proper cultural integration in each country. However, due to the different paradigm of historical development in China and Vietnam, and especially due to disagreement about the perception and behavior of indigenous culture among the Jesuits themselves, the process of evangelization in the two countries occurred differently. Based on historical and logical methods, especially the comparative method, this study analyzes and compares the similarities and differences in missionary methods and the advocacy of cultural integration in the two countries mentioned above. Primary sources were the foundation of the work, such as archival records and recently published research results of Chinese and Vietnamese scholars as well as other researchers. The results of this work contribute to assessing the similarities and differences in the process of applying missionary methods and cultural integration. The work further contributes to the study of Christian history in China and Vietnam in the16 th and 17 th centuries.

Over the last two decades, the historiography that focused on the solutions for representation of the inquisitorial tribunals in their diverse peripheries paid special attention to the role played by the commissioners of the Holy Office. The commissioners nominated to operate in non-peninsular settings (particularly Brazil and the Estado da Índia) were the object of particular analysis. In these cases, historiography highlighted a wide array of faculties and capacities when compared to their homologues in the kingdom of Portugal, specially the ones operating in the district of the Inquisition of Goa. Here, commissioners even benefited from faculties to absolve some offences in foro conscientiæ and sometimes even judicially. This proposal undertakes to reflect what might have motivated such departure from the profile of the Portuguese commissioner; whether it was, according to some texts, the dimension of the Goa Inquisition’s district; whether, according to other sources, the qualities of the newly-converted population that was subjected to the jurisdiction of this tribunal. Finally, we will seek to determine the consequences of the attribution of a specific judicial space to the episcopate in dioceses with more dynamic missions for the diversity of the models of inquisitorial vigilance in the Estado da Índia.

As an essential member of the tangible cultural heritage, historic architectural heritage contains unique historical and social values. This paper describes the current state of conservation of historic buildings and the ways of conservation, revitalization and renewal by the Macao authorities, and draws on the Cathedral of the Merciful Jesus in Goa, India, and Coventry Cathedral in England, to provide suggestions for the conservation and restoration of the site of St. Paul’s College in Macao. St. Paul’s College is divided into three main parts: St. Paul’s Church, the Seminary, and the Fortress, for conservation, revitalization, and renewal. The current conservation and renewal measures of the site are still inadequate. By analyzing the conservation strategies and the current situation, St. Paul’s College needs the cooperation of the government and the public to value and improve the reuse value of the site and increase its visibility. At the same time, the use of rich restoration and renewal methods, combined with the current situation of society in the restoration and renewal of the site, can present valuable ideas.

Based on the original materials recorded by the missionaries of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris operating in Vietnam from the second half of the 17th century to the late 18th century and the achievements of French and Vietnamese scholars, this article addresses the building of indigenous force of missionaries of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris in Tonkin and Cochinchina (Vietnam) during this period. In particular, the author of this article focuses on comparing the results of training Vietnamese priest resources and building seminaries in the two above areas, and at the same time points out the reason for such difference. To complete the content of this article, the author combines two main research methods of historical science (historical method and logical method) with other research methods (systematic, statistical, differential analysis, synthetic, etc.), especially the comparative method. The research result presented in the article makes specific contributions to studying the history of Christianity in Vietnam and the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris in this country in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The study of Catholic churches in Macau is of significant importance for both architectural heritage conservation and the transmission of cultural values. As religious structures, these churches serve as tangible representations of religious ideology and spiritual essence, thereby embodying the core principles of cultural expression. This paper aims to critically examine the Catholic churches of Macau, exploring their intrinsic values through an architectural research framework that emphasizes three key morphological elements: spatial characteristics, stylistic features, and structural composition. By contextualizing the historical background and architectural attributes, this study sheds light on the multifaceted significance of Catholic church construction in modern Macau, while offering a comprehensive analysis of the intersection, fusion, and coexistence of Eastern and Western cultural influences in this unique locale. Through this investigation, the paper uncovers a range of compelling cultural phenomena, providing insights that may serve as valuable reference points for future practices in architectural heritage conservation in Macau.

This article treats the familiar triad “Gold, God, and Glory” as a heuristic to track how commercial, missionary, and reputational aims were configure...

Dans le fief de Shimabara, l’évangélisation connaît le succès à la suite de la conversion de son seigneur (daimyo), Arima Harunobu (1561?-1612), en 1580. Cependant, entre 1612 et 1615, les premières arrestations et exécutions de catholiques ordonnées par le successeur de Harunobu, Arima Naozumi (1586-1641), et les autorités de Nagasaki ébranlent les chrétiens. Après dix années de (relatif ) répit, Matsukura Shigemasa (1574-1630), le seigneur du fief depuis 1616, orchestre une nouvelle vague de répression visant à saper l’organisation religieuse des villages en coupant leurs liens avec le clergé et en soumettant les figures laïques locales. Entre 1625 et 1630, plus de soixante-dix fidèles perdent la vie, et pratiquement la totalité de la population est contrainte de renier formellement le christianisme. Cette période de cinq années est très bien documentée grâce aux sources missionnaires et à des chroniques japonaises régionales. Or, les recherches précédentes ont généralement négligé ces documents ou les ont étudiés séparément. Cet article montre que leur examen comparatif rend possible l’étude, à micro-échelle, de la logique répressive, de l’équilibre des forces dans les villages, de l’ambivalence des chrétiens face à la clandestinité et de l’apostolat des derniers missionnaires. En d’autres termes, ces témoignages nous permettent de réévaluer selon différents points de vue l’expérience de ces communautés durant la période d’interdiction, quelques années avant la révolte de Shimabara-Amakusa (1637-1638).