Filippucci, Alessandro Francesco Saverio

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FILIPPUCCI, ALESSANDRO FRANCESCO SAVERIO

Jesuit missionary in China and Japan for 32 years;b. Macerata, Italy, Jan. 5, 1632; d. Macau, Aug. 15, 1692. He became a Jesuit in 1651, and in 1658 was cured of a serious illness through the intercession of St. Francis Xavier. In 1660 he left for China, arriving there in 1663. At Macau he held the posts of novice-master and professor of literature until 1671, when he was assigned to parish work in Guangdong (Kwantung) Province. He saw his residence destroyed during an uprising against the Emperor in 1676. After serving as provincial for Japan from 1680 to 1683, and superior in Guangzhou (Canton) from 1683 to 1688, he was named visitor of the missions in China and Japan from 1688 to 1691. He collected the letters of St. Francis Xavier that were later included in Possuine's edition. He also wrote a work in defense of the Jesuits in the controversy of the chinese rites (Lyons 1700).

Bibliography: l. pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques, 2 v. (Shanghai 193234). Dizionario ecclesiastico 1:1118.

[b. lahiff]