(1552-1610)

A missionary who found the door opened to take the gospel to China. The spiritual successor to Francis Xavier. In 1567 a small island off the coast of China, Macao became a Portuguese colony. For years, however, the entrance to China seemed impossible. The ruling Ming dynasty had no interest in contacts with the outside world. They considered the Chinese as the givers of culture, not the receivers. Confucianism was dominant. In 1579 Allessandro Valignani, a leader of the Jesuits in the Orient, called Ricci to Macao and placed the burden of China upon his shoulders. He settled in Macao to learn the Chinese language and customs. In 1583 he secured permission to settle in Chaoch'ing, the provincial capital. With their traditional respect for the scholar, the Chinese responded to a man who dressed in the garb of a Mandarin, spoke their language, and was able to open to them

(1506-1552)

The first and greatest Jesuit missionary. Worked in India, Indonesia and Japan. The greatest stories of Jesuit heroism come from Asia. There, the incredibly courageous Francis Xavier towered above all the rest as the "apostle to the Indies and to Japan". Xavier was born into the Spanish nobility and was one of the original members of the Society of Jesus. Loyola early recognized that this handsome, bright and cheerful young man would make a powerful servant of God. He became the most widely-acclaimed Jesuit missionary of all time. He was appointed the Pope's ambassador and sent to evangelize the East Indies in 1542. He spent three years there, followed by preaching and baptizing in present-day Malaysia, Vietnam, and Japan. His most remarkable mission was in Japan where he established a Christian community which has survived to this day, despite numerous periods of severe persecution. Xavier died of a fever when