Mission to China

Abstract

For eighty years the Franciscans have preached the Gospel among the Tartars and founded forty churches there; most recently the order has been crowned by nine [new] martyrs. Jerome, bishop of Caffa Jerome emphasises the order's contribution to missions in Morocco, India and China. The audacious enterprise of seeking to evangelise China, a region which would be sprinkled with the friars' blood, was launched at a time when more information about the orient was reaching the west. Increased trade took Greek and Italian wines to China, a country visited by Venetian merchants during the thirteenth century. Marco Polo reached China in 1271 and spent many years in the imperial service. The noble conduct of the Chinese entered popular literature. These contacts created opportunities for new initiatives by the western Church in general and the order in particular. John of Montecorvino (1247–1328) A native of southern Italy, John of Montecorvino participated in the missions to Armenia and Persia about 1279–83; he returned to Rome in 1289 with a letter from King Hethum II of Armenia to the pope, who replied on 14 July 1289. Pope Nicholas IV wrote a series of letters to the leaders of the Tartars and focused on the opportunities for evangelisation. John was entrusted with a letter to Dionysius, bishop in partibus orientis , on 7 July 1289, and a letter to Kubilai Khan on 13 July 1289; the second of these announced that John was being sent with his companions to evangelise the Tartars.