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Giacomo Rho

Italian Jesuit missionary

Field	Value
name	Giacomo Rho
honorific_suffix	SJ
birth_date	1593
birth_place	Milan, Duchy of Milan
death_date
death_place	Beijing, Ming China
resting_place	Zhalan Cemetery, Beijing
occupation	Jesuit missionary

Giacomo Rho (1593, Milan – 27 April 1638, Beijing) was an Italian Jesuit missionary in China. There he adopted the Chinese name Luo Yagu (羅雅谷) and was also known by his courtesy name Weishao (味韶).

Life

Rho, the son of a jurist, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty. While later proficient in mathematics, he was a poor student initially.

Following his ordination in Rome by Cardinal Bellarmine, he sailed for the Far East in 1617 with forty-four companions. After a brief stay in Goa, he proceeded to Macao. During the siege of that city by Dutch forces in 1622, he was attributed by Jesuit sources to be the one who fired a cannon shot that landed on a barrel of gunpowder in the midst of the Dutch formation, which turned the tide of the battle and saved the city from the attack. This service opened China to him.

Rho rapidly acquired knowledge of the Chinese language, and in 1631, he was summoned to Beijing by the emperor to work on reforming the Chinese calendar. Together with Johann Adam Schall von Bell, he occupied himself on this task until the end of his life seven years later, in 1638. Numerous Chinese officials attended his funeral.

Rho left works relative to the correction of the Chinese calendar and other astronomical and theological questions.

He was buried in the Jesuits' Zhalan Cemetery in Beijing.

References

;Attribution

.
The entry cites:
Augustin de Backer & Carlos Sommervogel, Biblioth. de la Comp. de Jésus, VI (9 vols., Brussels and Paris, 1890–1900), 1709–11;
Évariste Régis Huc, Christianity in China, Tartary and Thibet, II (tr. New York, 1884), 265–66.

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1593-births 1638-deaths 17th-century-italian-jesuits italian-roman-catholic-missionaries jesuit-missionaries-in-china italian-missionaries-in-china italian-emigrants-to-china

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