Bridges Between East and West

Missionaries and Scholars in China

From the sixteenth century, Macau was the gateway for Western missionaries entering China. Alessandro Valignano范禮安 · Alessandro ValignanoAn Italian Jesuit and Visitor of the Society's missions in the East Indies. He reached Macau in 1578 and made the city his command centre for Jesuit work across Asia. In 1594 he founded St. Paul's College in Macau, regarded as one of the earliest Western-style colleges in East Asia. Macau's role as the gateway of the Catholic China mission is largely his doing. He died and was buried in Macau in 1606.Read profile → set the policy of "accommodation" to Chinese culture; was among the first Jesuits to enter China; and , as a scholar, befriended the literati and brought Western astronomy, mathematics and cartography into China. Three centuries later, made Macau his base as the first Protestant missionary to China, compiling the first Chinese-English dictionary and the first Chinese Bible.