Antonio of Santa Maria

Antonio of Santa Maria a Franciscan monk and missionary, born at Placentia, Spain, about 1610. He went as missionary to the Philippine Islands, where he taught theology in the monastery of the Discalceats. In 1633 he went to China, and was made superior of the missionaries of his order in that country. For thirty- seven years he labored with great zeal, suffering chains and imprisonment. He preached first in the province of Fokien, then at Nankin, and lastly in Xantung, where. he founded a church. He died in 1670. Among the works which he has left may be mentioned Relatio Sinensium Sectarum; De Controversia Primogenitorum Defunctorum; Confuci Cultus; An Apology for Christianity, in Chinese; A work in Spanish on the Chinese rites (translated into French by the Board of Foreign Missions, and printed at Paris, 1701); A Catechism, in Chinese (Canton, 1660); An Apology for the Dominican and Franciscan Missionaries in China; History of the Venerable Brother Gabriel, of Madelaina, and the Seven Discalceat Franciscans, martyred in Japan; De modo Evangelisandi regnum Dei it Sinico imperio; Tractatus de Sinarum Conversione; Relationes 5 de Conversatione, Progressibus, ac Fructibus Missionariorum discalceatorum in Sinensium imperio; and many other works, chiefly relating to the Chinese missions. — Landon, Eccl. Dict. s.v.