St. Paul's College, Macau

Ruins of St. Paul's, showing the remaining facade of the Madre de Deus church

St. Paul's College of Macau (Portuguese: Colégio de São Paulo) also known as College of Madre de Deus (Mother of God in Portuguese) was a university founded in 1594 in Macau by Jesuits at the service of the Portuguese. It claims the title of the first Western university in the Far East. It was funded by Alessandro Valignano who upgraded the previous Madre de Deus school and named "St. Paul's University College of Macau".

At first the college included two seminaries for lay brothers, a university with faculties of arts, philosophy and theology, a primary school and a school of music and arts. Between 1597 and 1645 it had immense influence on the learning of Eastern languages and culture by missionary Jesuits, making Macao a base for the spreading of Christianity in China and in Japan. Its academic program is comprehensive and equivalent to that of a university: it included core disciplines such as theology, philosophy, and mathematics, geography, astronomy, and Latin, Portuguese and Chinese languages. Many famous scholars taught and learned at this college, that became home to the first western sinologists such as Matteo Ricci, Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest.

Jesuits abandoned it in 1762 wen they were expelled by the Portuguese authorities, during the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1835. In 2005 the ruins of St. Paul's - with the facade of the church of the Mother of God - were officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Historic Centre of Macau.

History

Represented (top): Matthieu Ricci, Adam Schaal, Ferdinand Verbiest
Bottom: Paul Siu (Xu Guangqi), colao or Prime Minister of State; Candide Hiu, grand-daughter of Colao Paul Siu.

Since 1557, Portuguese Macau was the single center for exchange between China and Japan, and from there to Goa and Europe. In 1571 Nagasaki was opened for Portuguese ships after an agreement with Daimyo Omura Sumitada, who converted to Catolicism, and a flourishing trade established between the two cities. In 1575 Pope Gregory XIII decided that Japan belonged to the Portuguese diocese of Macau.

In September 1578 Alessandro Valignano arrived to Macau as a visitor of Jesuit Missions in the Indies, to examine and when necessary reorganize, answering to the Jesuit Superior in Rome. There he realized that no missions succeeded in establishing in mainland China. Language study had always been one of the core problems. In his view, it was necessary first to learn to speak, read, and write the Chinese language. To this end, he wrote to the Superior in India, who sent to Macau Jesuit scholar Michele Ruggieri(羅明堅) who called for the help of Matteo Ricci (利瑪竇), to share the work. Ricci joined him in Macau in 1582. and together, they become the first European scholars of China and the Chinese language.

In 1579 Valignano made his first visit to Japan. Before the Visitor arrived, seventeen of Valignano's personally appointed missionaries wrote to him complaining that language training was totally nonexistent. Missionary activities in Japan began around 1549, with the arrival of Jesuit co-founder Francis Xavier, who was received in a friendly manner and permitted to preach. Lacking fluency in the Japanese language, he had limited to reading aloud a Japanese translation of a catechism, however Jesuits established congregations in Hirado, Yamaguchi and Bungo. In 1563 Oda Nobunaga favored Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis, and generally tolerated Christianity. By 1579 there were about 130,000 converts. and many daimyos converted to Christianity to gain more favorable access to trade and arms. It was Valignano's first official act upon arriving in Japan that all new missionaries in the province spend two years in a language course, separating these newcomers by leaps and bounds from the first enthusiastic but stilted efforts of Francis Xavier.

On the 9th of June, 1580 Omura Sumitada ceded jurisdiction over Nagasaki and Mogi to the Society of Jesus. On August 25, the armies of Philip II of Spain won the Battle of Alcântara, claiming the throne of Portugal and accomplishing the union of the empires so feared in Macau and Nagasaki, as it threatened the Chinese permission to stay in Macau, and challenged their carefully built trade monopoly as it opened to the Spanish based in the Philippines. In 1582, from Japan, Valignano sent an embassy to the Pope and the kings of Europe sponsored by Kirishitan daimyos Sumitada, Otomo Sorin and Arima Harunobu, whom he accompanied via Macau to Goa. In 1583, the Portuguese in Macau were permitted to form a Senate and kept sovereignty. Macau prospered, and Jesuits engaged in the trade. This breach of ecclesiastical practice did not go unnoticed by other European missions in the area, or by those living via inter-Asiatic trade. Eventually, the Pope was forced to intervene, and, in 1585, ordered an immediate cessation of all mercantile activities by the Society. Valignano made an impassioned appeal to the Pope, as Jesuit needed the funds to their many enterprises.

A page from the manuscript Portuguese-Chinese dictionary created by Ruggieri, Ricci, and Fernandez (between 1583-88)

In 1594 St. Paul's College of Macau was authorized by the Jesuit superior in Rome, by upgrading the previous Madre de Deus school. At first the college included two seminaries for lay brothers, a university with faculties of arts, philosophy and theology, a primary school and a school of music and arts. By 1595 Valignano could boast in a letter that not only had the Jesuits printed a Japanese grammar (see Arte da Lingoa de Iapam) and dictionary (see Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Nippo Jisho)), published in a printing press established in Nagasaki, but also several books (mostly the lives of saints and martyrs) entirely in Japanese. The main body of the grammar and dictionary was compiled from 1590–1603; when finished, it was a truly comprehensive volume with the dictionary alone containing some 32,798 entries.

Macao was thus the training ground for missions in Asia. From 1597 until 1645 Jesuit priests entering into China would always come first to Macao where, at St. Paul’s College, they would learn Chinese language together with other areas of Chinese knowledge, including philosophy and comparative religion. It was the largest seminary in the Far East at the time, and the first western-style university in the region.

See also

• Alessandro Valignano
• Michele Ruggieri
• Johann Adam Schall von Bell
• Ferdinand Verbiest
• Matteo Ricci
• Thomas Pereira
• João Rodrigues (missionary)
• Alexander de Rhodes
• Giulio Alenio
• Xu Guangqi
• Wu Li
• Petro Kasui Kibe
• Jesuit China missions
• Padroado

Bibliography

• Saraiva, Luís, Catherine Jami (2008). The Jesuits, the Padroado and East Asian science (1552-1773). World Scientific. ISBN 9812771255.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Witek, John W., Michel Reis, Colégio Universitário de S. Paulo (Macau) (1999). Religion and culture: an international symposium commemorating the fourth centenary of the University College of St. Paul, Macau, 28 November to 1 December 1994. Instituto Cultural de Macau. ISBN 9723502356.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)