Francesco Brancati (1607 in Sicily – 1671 in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) was an Italian

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionary.

Life

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and went to the Chinese Missions in 1637. For nearly thirty years he labored in the province of Kiang-nan, building, it is said, more than ninety churches and forty-five chapels. In 1665, he was exiled from Peking to

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

, where he died (according to Sommervogel, at Shanghai).

Works

He wrote and published numerous books in Chinese, most of which were reprinted by the Jesuit missionaries in the nineteenth century. Among these are a treatise on the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

, instructions on the Decalogue and on the Commandments of the Church, a refutation of

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

, and particularly a

Catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

, entitled in Chinese 《天神會課》''Conversations of the Angels''. The Russian Archimandrite Hyacinth (Bichurin), who was the head of the Orthodox mission at Peking, published in the second decade of the nineteenth century an extract of this catechism, adapted to the Greek Rite, in which he omitted everything that disagreed with the Russian Orthodox teaching. Brancati also composed in Chinese several volumes of sermons and homilies for the Sundays and feast days of the ecclesiastical year. His work on the

Chinese rites The Chinese Rites controversy () was a dispute among Roman Catholic missionaries over the religiosity of Confucianism and Chinese rituals during the 17th and 18th centuries. The debate discussed whether Chinese ritual practices of honoring fami ...

was published in two volumes at Paris in 1700. It bears the title ''De Sinensium Ritibus politicis Acta.''

References

* Sommervogel, Carlos, ''Bibliothèque de la Campagnie de Jesus'', II, 81-83 *Paternicò, Luisa M. (2018), voce “Brancati Francesco”, in F. Armetta (a cura di), ''Dizionario Enciclopedico dei Pensatori e Teologi di Sicilia, Dalle origini al secolo XVIII'', vol. II, Caltanissetta-Roma: Sciascia Editore, pp. 817-824. *Michaud, Biog. univ., s.v.

External links

*''This article incorporates text from the 1913 '' Catholic Encyclopedia'' article " Francesco Brancati" by B. Guldner, a publication now in the public domain.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Brancati, Francesco 1607 births 1671 deaths 17th-century Italian Jesuits Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Italian translators Jesuit missionaries in China Italian expatriates in China 17th-century Italian translators Missionary linguists