Cattaneo, Lazzaro
CATTANEO, LAZZARO
Jesuit missionary to China; b. Sarzana, near Genoa, 1560; d. China, Jan. 19, 1640. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1581. After being ordained he sailed from Lisbon in 1588 for Goa. The next year he was made superior of the mission for the Malabar coast. In 1593 he went to Macau, and from there into China. He studied Chinese at Chaoking with Matteo ricci, and in 1598 he joined Ricci in a journey to Beijing (Peking). After labors in Nanjing (Nanking) and Macau, he became the first missionary to Shanghai, arriving there in 1608 at the invitation of a famous and influential Chinese convert, Hsü Kuang-chi. Cattaneo's work took him also to Hangzhou (Hangchow) in 1611, and later to Loshan (Jiangsu province), where he founded a new mission. In 1622 he retired to Hangzhou and spent his remaining years writing spiritual treatises in Chinese and working in linguistics.
Bibliography: l. pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine 1552–1773, 2 v. (Shanghai 1932–34), 1:51–56. p. m. d'elia, "Arrivo del Cattaneo," in Fonti Ricciane, ed. M. ricci, 3 v. (Rome 1942–49), 1:331–334.
[j. c. willke]