Sculptures and statues that express a growing devotion to the priest and scientist Matteo Ricci, S.J., are appearing throughout China. At the Immaculate Concep-tion Cathedral in Beijing, a bronze image of Ricci in Mandarin robes dominates the courtyard. Commissioned in 2006, it has become a site of prayer for local Chinese and foreign visitors. Ricci, who arrived in China in 1582, is regarded as the founder of the Catholic Church in China. His tomb on the grounds of the Communist Party Training Academy in Beijing was revered and protected even during the Cultural Revolution. Known in China as Li Madou, Ricci is honored secularly as a great scientist and astronomer who brought Western technology to China and adopted Chinese culture. He has recently become a focus of intercessory prayer for reconciliation between Rome and Beijing. The cause for his beatification, begun in 1984, gained momentum in 2011, the 400th anniversary of his death.
Ricci Venerated In China
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
In this episode of Inside the Vatican, Colleen Dulle and Gerard O’Connell discuss the 2025 Jubilee Year, beginning on Christmas Eve 2024 and ending in January 2026.
Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
‘If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!’
Inspired by his friend and mentor Henri Nouwen, Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., invites listeners in his Christmas Eve homily to approach the manger with renewed awe and openness.