Vie De S Francois De Borgia

Author : Noël Golvers
Publisher : Leuven University Press
ISBN 13 : 9789058670014
Total Pages : 824 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (7 download)

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Download or read book François de Rougemont, S.J., Missionary in Ch’ang-Shu (Chiang-Nan) written by Noël Golvers and published by Leuven University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reconstructs the life of a Jesuit missionary in a small inland residence in China (Ch'ang-shu, Chiang-nan Province), primarily but not exclusively on the basis of the evidence of a newly (re)discovered private Account Book covering the period from October 1674 to April/May 1676. This 'pocket' note book mainly represents the missionary's private expenses, and, to a much lesser extent, the revenues he received. As such it is an exceptional document in the missionary documentation. Absolutely unique is the part concerning his personal 'spiritual' exercises, his successes as well as failings in that field. After a lengthy introduction, in which both the life of the author and the complex composition of the Account Book are reconstructed, the text is presented, in a bilingual Latin - English edition. In seven chapters the contents are further described and analysed from various angles: the general topographical setting; the author's ten journeys through the region in 1674-1676; the social contacts referred to; the various aspects of priestly and pastoral life; the means of propagation, written as well as pictorial; the material culture of the mission; the financial structure of the whole undertaking, including the patterns of expenditure revealed. All the evidence available in this Account Book is combined with other contemporary information, mainly from unpublished sources, including a large number of quotations from the lost Couplet--Rougemont correspondence that has survived in Estrix's Elogium F. de Rougemont (1690), the text of which is also published here for the first time. Thus the Account Book assumes its place as an exceptional private document with a major relevance for the reconstruction of missionary life in China.