Ruggieri, Michele

Item

Family name
Ruggieri
Given name(s)
Michele
Chinese Name (Pinyin)
Luo Mingjian
Chinese Name (Simplified)
罗明坚
Chinese Name (Traditional)
羅明堅
Alternate name(s)
Ruggieri's name at birth was Pompilio, which he changed to Michele when entering the Society of Jesus.
Religious affiliation
Catholic - Jesuit
Date of Birth
1543
Date of Death
May 11, 1607
Language(s)
Italian (IT, ITA)
Spanish (ES, SPA)
Latin
Chinese (ZH, CHI)
Biography
EN

Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607) was a pioneering Italian Jesuit missionary who laid the fundamental groundwork for the Jesuit missions in China. Born in Spinazzola, he joined the Society of Jesus and arrived in Macau in 1579.

Ruggieri was the first European missionary to master the Chinese language sufficiently to write a book, composing the catechism Tianzhu Shilu (The True Record of the Lord of Heaven). In 1583, he secured permission to settle in Zhaoqing, establishing the first permanent Jesuit mission in Ming China.

Though often overshadowed by his younger colleague Matteo Ricci, Ruggieri co-authored the first Portuguese-Chinese dictionary and pioneered the strategy of cultural accommodation before returning to Italy to seek papal support.
Bibliography

Joseph Dehergne, Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800 (Rome: Institutum Historicum S.I., 1973), p. 235

Daniel Canaris (ed.), Michele Ruggieri's Tianzhu shilu (The True Record of the Lord of Heaven, 1584) (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 27-79
Chinese Christian Texts Database
Item sets
Persons

Linked resources

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