ASIA/CHINA - The memory of the Jesuit Martino Martini still opens up paths of encounter and dialogue

by Marta Zhao and Laura Gomez Ruiz

Hangzhou (Agenzia Fides) - China, the city of Hangzhou and the Chinese Catholic community have never forgotten Father Martino Martini.
The great Jesuit missionary, appreciated by the emperors and welcomed at the court of the Qing Dynasty, was born in Trento, Italy, 410 years ago, on September 20, 1614. Even today, his story and his testimony arouse unexpected sympathy.

As part of the celebrations organized by the Italian Embassy in Beijing for the 700th anniversary of the death of the traveler and merchant Marco Polo, the theme "In the footsteps of Marco Polo: Martino Martini" presented for the first time a series of important Italian personalities who, at different times and in different capacities, contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about China in the West.

The Chinese President Xi Jinping has publicly expressed his appreciation for Martino Martini. In an article published in the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on March 20, 2019, on the eve of his official visit to Italy, Xi Jinping described the Jesuit as a pioneer of the group of Italian sinologists who "have played a bridging role in relations between China and Europe, starting with Martino Martini's first grammar of the Chinese language written for the West."

In Italy, the Martino Martini Study Center, based in Trento, now publishes, among other things, the biannual magazine "Sulla Via del Catai" on cultural relations between Europe and China.

In the city of Hangzhou, a park bearing his name has been created around his mausoleum. Protected by the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Heritage Authority, the site has become a kind of sanctuary for Chinese Catholics. The mausoleum, which is currently being restored, houses the remains of 15 famous Jesuit missionaries who ended their earthly lives near the beautiful Xizi Lake. Among them are Father Prospero Intorcetta (1626-1696), Father Nicolas Trigault (1577-1629), Father Lazaro Cattaneo (1560-1640) and Father Emmanuel Diaz (1574-1659).

In 2018, an exhibition on the cartographic work of Martino Martini was inaugurated at the headquarters of the China-Italy Center in Hangzhou to celebrate the 375th anniversary of the arrival of the great missionary in that city (see Fides, 13/6/2018).

The Catholic community of Hangzhou had organized an academic conference in 2010 to mark the 350th anniversary of the construction of the cathedral. Six well-known academics from Chinese universities and researchers working with Catholic institutions such as the Faith Institute for Cultural Studies (FICS) and the Guang Qi Press of the Diocese of Shanghai presented joint studies on the life and mission of the Jesuit in the presence of the Italian Consul in Shanghai. The legacy of Martino Martini was presented as "a strong impulse for today's mission, so that it fulfills its mission with his sense of missionary responsibility, his courage and his dedication" (see Fides, 22/1/2010).

The affection and veneration shown to the figure of Martino Martini are proportional to the intensity with which he lived his time and dedicated his life to proclaiming the Gospel in China.
Martino Martini was born in Trento on 20 September 1614. In 1631 he entered the Society of Jesus as a novice. After studying at the Roman College under the influence of his mentor, the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, he entered the Eastern mission in 1640, traveling by ship from Lisbon in Portugal via Goa in India (November 1640) to Macao in China, where he arrived in August 1642. The following year he was sent to mainland China, thus beginning his legendary journey of cultural exchange between China and Europe. He wrote the first Western Chinese grammar and related works that contributed to cultural exchange, bridged the gap between China and Europe, and had a lasting influence on the emergence and development of Sinology in Italy.

The period of his stay in China, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, was a time of great social unrest. The Jesuits, who had built good relations with influential sections of Chinese society and the political hierarchy, were worried about the development of the situation. The Chinese name they chose, Wei Kuangguo, encompassed all his good wishes: it indicated the will to defend and support the country and the desire for peace and prosperity in the world.

But the unrest and conflict in China also divided the Jesuits and the Spanish mendicant orders and even infiltrated the Society of Jesus itself. The controversy over the Chinese translation of the divine name and the possibility that the new Christians should continue to practice the cult of the dead according to Chinese culture did not subside, but reached an intensity that even Martini could not contain, both inside and outside the order. An issue that was to shape the rest of his life.

His travels and his writing formed the common thread in the second half of his life. During the first eight years of his stay in China (1643-1650), Martini traveled between the two capitals and to Hangzhou and Jinhua in Zhejiang. In the fourth year of Shunzhi's reign (1647), Martino Martini, with the help of Zhu Shi, a parishioner of Lanxi in Zhejiang, wrote the "Qiu You Zhuan" (Treatise on Friendship, Hangzhou, 1661), which was based on the humanist thought already developed by the other Jesuit Matteo Ricci in his work of the same name, the first written in Chinese by the Italian Jesuit from Macerata.

The southern part of Zhejiang, where Martino Martini was, was a region where Spanish monks also worked. He agreed with the information given by his confrere Matteo Ricci and was well aware of the differences with the Spanish Cistercians on the question of Chinese rites. In addition, the Spanish Dominican Juan Bautista Morales (1597-1664) had already traveled to Rome to express his objections to the Jesuits' attitude in this dispute. When the Jesuit mission in China decided to send a representative to Europe to explain the situation from their point of view, the choice fell on Martino Martini.

In 1651, the Jesuit traveled to Europe to defend the position of the Society of Jesus on the issue of Chinese rites. Thanks also to his good offices, in 1656 the Holy See issued an edict in favor of the Jesuits.

During his travels in Europe, Martino Martini published three works in Latin: “De Bello Tartarico Historia”, “Novus Atlas Sinensis” and “Sinice Historia Decas Prima” (of which he also announced the publication of the sequel). These works were the most systematic, thorough and effective representations of China circulating in Europe at the time.

In 1657 he returned to China and continued his mission in Hangzhou, where he completed the construction of the Church of the Redeemer in 1661 and died on June 6 of the same year at the age of 47. (Agenzia Fides, 24/9/2024)

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