Macau
Portuguese town on the south coast of China, with a Jesuit college. Jesuit missionaries waited here for a passage to Japan, and Diego de Pantoja entered China from here at the end of 1599.
Diego de Pantoja, writing in 1602, describes Macau as a city of the Portuguese adjoining the mainland of China, with a college of the Society of Jesus; he waited there for a passage to Japan before he was sent into China instead, and he puts the Jesuit house at Nanjing three hundred leagues from it (Pantoja, Letter of 1602, Purchas 12, pp. 332, 336). See Matteo Ricci at the Court of Beijing.
What happened here
- 24 January 1601, firm dateMatteo Ricci at the Court of Beijing
The Jesuit Matteo Ricci reaches Beijing in January 1601 with gifts for the Wanli emperor and is allowed to stay. He writes a catechism that argues from reason and the Chinese classics, and scholars such as Xu Guangqi are baptized and work with him.
- 25 January 1944, firm dateThe First Woman Is Ordained an Anglican Priest
In unoccupied China the Anglican bishop of Hong Kong ordains the deaconess Li Tim Oi a priest, so that her wartime congregation in Macau may have the sacraments. The Lambeth Conference of 1948 advises against such ordinations; that of 1978 accepts churches that ordain women.