Georgius Candidius (1597– 30 April 1647) was a Dutch Reformed Church missionary to Dutch Formosa from 1627 to 1637. He was the first missionary to be stationed on the island.

Name

Candidius's Latinate first name is sometimes Germanified to Georg or Anglicized to George.Campbell, ''Sketches''
p. 336
He sinified it as , whose modern pinyin romanization is ''Gān Zhìshì''.

Biography

Candidius was born in 1597 at Kirchardt in the Palatinate. He studied at Leiden in the Dutch Republic from 1621 to 1623, when he was persuaded by Sebastiaen Dankaerts to minister overseas. Before arriving in

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...

in 1627 Candidius worked in Ternate, Moluccas. Having arrived in Taiwan he refused to live in the Dutch castle Zeelandia and settled in the native village of Sinckan (modern-day

Sinshih Sinshih District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (), alternatively spelled Xinshi, is a rural district in central Tainan, Taiwan, about 11 km north of Fort Provintia. As ''Sincan'', it was one of the most important ...

) instead. In 1632 he married

Saartje Specx Saartje Specx (1617–1636) was the daughter of Jacques Specx, governor of the North Quarter of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC's) Asian trading empire, and a Japanese concubine. Saartje (Sara in English) was born at the Dutch trading base on ...

, daughter of

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

Jacques Specx. Specx had previously evoked a scandal in Batavia and Holland when she was discovered making love to a young soldier in the private quarters of Specx's predecessor, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, who was known for his harsh

discipline Discipline refers to rule following behavior, to regulate, order, control and authority. It may also refer to punishment. Discipline is used to create habits, routines, and automatic mechanisms such as blind obedience. It may be inflicted on ot ...

. Narrowly escaping a death sentence, she was flogged and her lover beheaded.Specx, Sara (1616/1617-ca. 1636)
/ref> After a year in residence in the region of Tayouan (present-day Tainan), Candidius commented regarding his missionary duties that: Candidius returned to the Netherlands in 1639 and went to Batavia (

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

) in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

( Indonesia) in 1643. There, he served as rector of the Latin school until his death on 30 April 1647. Sun-Moon Lake in central Taiwan was named ''Lake Candidius'' in his honour and is referred to thus in older English writings, although this name was not adopted by the local inhabitants and later fell into disuse.

Published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Candidius, George Protestant missionaries in Taiwan Dutch Protestant missionaries Dutch expatriates in Taiwan 1597 births 1647 deaths People from Tainan People from Heilbronn (district) People of Dutch Formosa Dutch Reformed Church missionaries Dutch East India Company people