Can Matteo Ricci’s Beatification Mend China’s Rift With the Catholic Church?
The campaign to turn the 16th century Jesuit into a saint depends on finding a miracle. Restoring Sino/Vatican relations may require one, too.
The tomb of Matteo Ricci, in Beijing. (Wikimedia Commons)
Debra BrunoNov 13 2013, 8:00 AM ET
When Matteo Ricci walked the streets of Beijing more than 400 years ago, he was a celebrity. The Jesuit was the first Westerner to enter the gates of the Forbidden City. He impressed the emperor by predicting solar eclipses. He created an enormous map that gave Ming dynasty Chinese a sense of the rest of the world for the first time. He spoke and read Chinese well enough to translate Euclid.
And even though, after 13 years in China, he began to dress in the garb of an imperial scholar-official, his goal was to convert the Chinese to Catholicism, which he did with some success and considerable flair.
Now all he needs is a miracle or two. Literally.
In May, the Vatican body that overseas canonization pushed ahead the case for making Ricci, who died in 1610, a saint. The Catholic Church has collected hundreds of documents that provide evidence of his “heroic virtues” and has dubbed him a Servant of God, which puts him on the first rung of four steps toward full-fledged sainthood. In order for him to advance, Ricci’s supporters must now find evidence of popular devotion to Ricci, that prayers to him have cured fatal illnesses, or that his body hasn’t decayed in the 403 years since his death.
http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/can-matteo-ricci-s-beatification-mend-china-s-rift-with-the-catholic-church/281405/
