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Father
Matteo Ricci, SJ |
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THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (Taiwan), 1983, the 4th centenary of his arrival and the reform of the calendar, Scott 2359-60Ricci joined the Jesuits in Rome, where he studied under the famous Christopher Clavius. He set sail for Goa where he was ordained. He immediately made a reputation as a scientist of enormous versatility and a channel of western learning. He wished to become a channel of the Gospel as well. His vision was to win the intellectual masters of China using learning and its methods as a magnet, and to sow the seeds that would lead to the conversion of Chine en bloc. Dressing as a scholar, he lectured in the chief administrative and scholastic centers of China and finally in imperial Peking. There he died at the height of his career; his tomb a gift of the Emperor. He remains today the most respected foreigner in Chinese literature. More
ITALY, 2002, 450th Anniversary of Ricci's birth, Scott 2486
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MACAO, 2006, the Society of Jesus issue, Scott 1205, 1209
With its "Society of Jesus" issue of 4 stamps and a souvenir sheet, Macao marked many anniversaries and commemorated Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) who became the first Superior of the independent Province of China established in 1604. Ricci's face and body (holding a fan) on the souvenir sheet are modeled on an illustration from Athanasius Kircher's China monumentis illustrata.