Emmanuel de Siqueira was born on the 27th of May, 1633. Both his father (António de Siqueira) and mother were Chinese and his Chinese name was Cheng Ma-no Wei-hsin.
On the 20th of December 1645, Father Alexandre de Rhodes, SJ, missionary to the Cochin-China region, took him overland to Rome. While in Persia, the Tartars travelling with them suspected that Siqueira was a Turkish Moor in disguise. They then tried to kidnap him in Turkey. Fortunately, however, Rhodes learned about their plan and hid Siqueira in a Dominican convent in Yerevan in Armenia. During the six months he spent there, Siqueira learned Armenian.
At last, another missionary to the Cochin-China region, Father Francesco della Roca, SJ, took Siqueira to Rome and they arrived there on the 1st of January, 1650.
Siqueira then began his studies in Rome and in October of the following year he joined Saint Andrew's Jesuit Novitiate. Two years later he enrolled in the Roman College, where between 1653 and 1657 he studied Rhetoric, Logic, Physics, Natural Theology and Metaphysics.
Between 1657 and 1660, Siqueira suspended his studies and taught Grammar and Humanities in the Roman College. Then, in the summer of 1660, he moved to Bologne where he entered the Jesuit College to continue his studies. After completing his first term there, he moved to Portugal where he joined the Jesuit College in Coimbra. Finally, in 1666, upon completion of his third term there, he took Holy Orders.
RETURN TO CHINA
In the same year that Siqueira took Holy Orders, Father Giovanni Filippo Marini SJ was in Europe looking for priests to join the China Mission. Siqueira was one of a number of priests and scholars chosen to join this mission and on the 13th of April, 1666 the group left Lisbon for Goa, aboard the Nossa Senhora da Ajuda. They arrived in Goa on the 13th of October and spent the following two years there because missions in China and Cochin-China were being persecuted and missionaries were not allowed in.
However, as he had done in Armenia,Siqueira took advantage of his sojourn in Goa by learning Canarim, a Deccan language spoken in the region. Then, in May 1668, Siqueira and the rest of the party left Goa for Macau aboard the Nossa Senhora da Penha de França. The journey was broken in Malacca where they stayed for nine days.
PREACHING IN MALACCA
There is some interesting and quite revealing documentation regarding the activities of these missionaries during the short time they spent in Malacca. According to a letter dated the 31st of December 1668, written in Macau and addressed to the General Assistant of the Society in Rome, Father Alessandro Fieschi, it was reported that:
As soon as they heard the news, men paddled anxiously in their small boats towards our ship; there were so many that they filled our ship. Each and every one brought a present as a token of affection and we were so moved to see that they were simple and cordial, and willing to be blessed. We blessed them but they asked us to disembark and go ashore to bless the women, who were willing to pay the two hundred escudos fine imposed by the Dutch on those who were found hiding a priest without the Governor's consent.
In order to fulfil the people's religious desire, the priests decided to disembark with official authorization, saying that the ship needed to be supplied with provisions.
Two days later, they got the Governor's permission but only four priests were allowed to go ashore. They could spend the day in the city but had to return to the ship at sunset. As there were over three thousand Christians and four days were not enough to attend to all of them1 we decided to ignore the restrictions. More members of our group disembarked and were secretly taken to some houses arranged by the followers. Some of us hid there throughout the day, while others stayed throughout the night.
Groups of faithful Catholics visited us in these humble shelters, the majority of whom would wait all night long to attend a Mass. They had kept everything required for the blessing during those many years. For hours we took their confessions and administered the communion to them. We were so impressed with their religious devotion that it seemed we were in a monastery. Every time we ventured out in the streets they would salute us with affection, giving us fruit and other offerings for the Mass. With tears in their eyes they would entreat us to stay with them. 2
MACAU AND CHINA
After leaving Malacca, Siqueira and his fellow Christians arrived in Macau in August 1669. In Macau, Siqueira set to studying Chinese.
It is worth pausing here to point out that in 1665 the Roman Catholic Church was outlawed in China and in 1666 all missionaries were deported to Canton. In fact, the Chinese Dominican Gregório Lo was the only priest who could go freely from one province to another. Later, Siqueira had the same privilege, but chose the Kwangtung provinces rather than the Northern ones. Siqueira was a member of Japan's Jesuit Province which established the Kwangtung and Hainan missions in 1665. However, as a result of the persecution against Christians in China, several priests were arrested in Canton including Father Gregório Lo.
During these very difficult and dangerous years of persecution in China there were many examples of great courage and daring shown by the priests. The Sicilian Jesuit father Prospero Intorcetta was imprisoned in Canton, but as he was the appointed Mission Representative to Rome, a daring escape was arranged. The French Jesuit Germain Macret, who was in exile in Macau, offered to replace Intorcetta. Intorcetta escaped from prison and Macret secretly replaced him. In 1670, a different case occurred when Dominican Domingo Fernandez Navarrete escaped from the prison in Canton without preliminary arrangements having been made. This escapade could have jeopardized those who stayed behind, but the Italian Jesuit Cláudio Filipo Grimaldi replaced him. Thus, the situation in China was that all the missions were empty, as foreign missionaries had either been arrested or expelled.
Siqueira had arrived in Macau in August 1669 and had spent his time revising his knowledge of the Chinese language. All those who had been arrested in Canton discussed the great problem of the empty missions. All of them, including Siqueira, agreed that Intorcetta should bring the matter to the attention of Rome. 3Siqueira appealed to the General:
The only way to be near those Christians and administer the Holy Sacrament is to send in undercover local priests, which is something that Europeans are barred from doing. The officials in this province accepted this suggestion and even wanted to implement it, but they could not recruit anybody because they have always refused to accept them. Now that they need local priests to remedy the situation, they are unable to find them. All these missions will close down unless this measure is accepted.
Referring to Siqueira's criticism, Francis Rouleau makes the following comment:
The problem was much more complex than the inexperienced Siqueira might have thought and his criticism is inappropriate. The need to have local priests was commonly accepted as a means to perpetuate the Church. But it was hard to find candidates who gave assurances of moral integrity in a relatively small Christian community, which was surrounded by a huge non-Christian society without Christian schools. Besides, only a small group of priests looked after the Christian community and this was what was most worrying, even to those who defended the localization programme.
Domenico Gabiani4, who defended this policy with great enthusiasm, admitted sadly in a letter addressed to Rome, one century after Siqueira's letter, that:
For the last six years we have been trying to find learned Chinese Christians of maturity to help us cultivate the Lord's vineyard by joining the Society of Jesus and becoming priests. Unfortunately, learned Christians with the above-mentioned qualities are very few and obstacles are so many that we could only find one, after numerous attempts.
(Gabiani, Vice-provincial, 11th of December 1681, to Oliva Jap.-Sin. 163, folio 163 verso).
According to Gabiani, the solution was to recruit teenagers. His proposal was to accept promising boys at the mission's most important posts and teach them the Christian virtues and arts (Chinese and Latin), running the schools like small-scale seminaries. He set the example in Nanking in China's most populated and devoted Christian communities. However, despite the effort and care put into this task, it seems that the outcome was far from his expectations.
Commenting on Gabiani's efforts, Frenchman Jan Valat, the new Vice-provincial, stated in a report addressed to Rome that the method was useless: We have learned that the Province has spent money on those youngsters, but to no avail. Of the four seminarists who went on a two-year training course to Nanking, one was expelled for immoral behaviour, the second was returned home due to lack of talent, the third was interested in joining the Society but was mediocre and the fourth was willing to become a priest but was so arrogant that he would not be accepted until better references are available. 5
(Valat, March 1685, to Charles Noyelle. Jap. -Sin. 163, leaf 273).
The situation of the Church in China improved however, when in August 1667, at the age of fourteen, Kang-hsi ascended the throne and reinstated the Jesuits to the Mathematics Tribunal. Thus, in late 1669, after one year of study in Macau, Siqueira, wearing a disguise, left for Canton. His missionary work in China had finally begun. In March 1671, Kang-hsi gave permission to all priests in Canton to return to their missions. In Macau, a thanksgiving Te Deum was sung.
In September 1671, missionaries organized a procession along the river banks. Two of those priests were renowned mathematicians, Italian Cláudio Filippo Grimaldi and the Austrian Christian Wolfgang Henriques Herdtricht who were sent to Peking. They went on a special boat decorated with banners on which was written "They head for the capital after being chosen and given honours by the Emperor". Siqueira joined them as Hsiang-kung, Chinese secretary to both Court Mathematicians. However, the winter was extremely cold and Siqueira became very ill on the journey to Peking. Grimaldi also fell sick and the Austrian attended to them both. Siqueira had to be admitted to a hospice, while the others arrived in Peking in early February.
Siqueira was suffering from tuberculosis and was released from the hospice after the spring, but died one year later on the 26th of May 1673, one day after his fortieth birthday. Francis Rouleau wrote the following about the last year of Siqueira's life:
He came to the capital and lived here, incognito, without the ruler's permission and unknown to the imperial mandarins; he was known only as the attaché to the bearded foreigners. He remained in obscurity behind the silk costumes of the Western-Astronomers, who were the only ones who had access to the Imperial Presence and were to feature in the Church's history. Their names and achievements would circulate in Europe and in fact they became part of the great Christian tradition in China. On the contrary, this Chinese priest who lived beside them and belonged to the same Order and community deserves only a brief reference. After his death, time has forgotten him completely.
While Verbiest assembled his sextants to measure stars and Magalhães made spheres from which all the colours of the prism emanated, and Herdtricht fixed the organ pipes which enchanted the emperor and courtiers alike with their melodies, this small, fragile Chinese Jesuit roved the city and surrounding areas on a much simpler mission. So far as his health would allow him, he catechized and baptized the community. Like himself, most of the Christians belonged to the lower classes. Siqueira spent his last days with them and working for them.
Father Emmanuel de Siqueira was buried in Chala Cemetery, Peking, and Dunin Szpot wrote: Father Emmanuel de Siqueira, called to Peking, lived a long life thanks to what he achieved in such a short period. He will be sadly missed by all the Imperial City's Christians.
NOTES
1 Just previously, Father Femando Manuel had carried out missionary work there. He left Macau for Malacca in May 1665. In 1651, Jesuit priests Pedro de Mesquita and Manuel Henriques worked there secretly; they left Macau in 1651, worked for two years and spent two years in jail. Father Henriques was born in Montemor, in 1612, and left for Goa in 1641; he was with Father Mesquita in Malacca (1651-1655); in Macau (1657); in India (1671); he was the representative of the Society of Jesus to Bandora, near Bombay (1673); China and Japan's representative to Goa in October 1690. Father Mesquita described the odyssey of Malacca in a long report dated the 25th of December 1655, addressed to Francisco de Távora, Portugal's Assistant to Rome: Relação da nova missão que fizerão os Padres Pedro de Mesquita e Manoel Henriquez, mandados do Collegio de Macao a Cidade e Fortaleza de Malacca em 1651 (Jesuítas na Asia, 49-W-52, pages 5-39).
2 Francis A. Rouleau, SJ, "The first Chinese Priest of the Society of Jesus, Emmanuel de Siqueira, 1633-1673". Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu Extractum et vol. XXVIII-1959. Rome.
3 In 1667, Father Francisco de Rougemont, SJ, wrote to General João Paulo Oliva requesting that the service be given in Chinese as had been recommended earlier by Belgian priests Ferdinand Verbiest and Philippe Couplet. The education of the Chinese clergy would be only in Chinese, which language would replace the Latin language at Masses and Sacraments. On the 26th of March 1615 upon Father Nicolas Trigault's request, the Holy Office approved the use of Chinese in rites, and this permission was later confirmed and published in the papal document Romanae Sedis Antistes dated 27th of June 1615. Circumstances at the time prevented the introduction of that decree which finally became effective three centuries later at the IInd Vatican Council.
4 Giandomenico or Giovanni Domenico Gabiani was born on the 23rd of April 1623, in Nice. He joined the Society on the 15th of September 1639 and left Lisbon on the 23rd of March 1655. He reached Macau in 1656, carried on missionary work in various regions of China and was exiled to Canton (1665-1671). He was vice-provincial in Macau (1680-83 and 1689-92). In Nanking he founded a Seminary in 1684. He passed away in Yangchowfu on the 24th of October 1694. He wrote the following works, among others: De ritibus Ecclesiae Sinicae (1680); and De latinae lingua usu Sinensibus non inducendo (Joseph Dehergne, SJ, Repertoire des Jesuites de Chine de 1552 a 1800, Rome, 1973, page 104).
5 Valat, March 1685, to Charles Noyelle. Jap. -- Sin.. 163, page 273. Quoted by Rouleau, page 39.
* Historian specializing in Macau and the presence of Portugal and the Church in the East; author of over one hundred books; fellow of many international associations and institutions including the International Historians' Association of Asia and the Portuguese Academy of History.
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