Zheng Manuo

Zheng Manuo^[a] SJ (25 May 1633 – 26 May 1673) was the first Chinese international student in Europe and the first Chinese Jesuit priest. At the age of twelve, Zheng left Macau with the French priest Alexandre de Rhodes in 1645 and reached Rome in 1650. Zheng studied first at the novitiate of Sant'Andrea in Rome. He then studied and taught at the Roman College from 1653 to 1660. Afterwards, he studied theology at the University of Bologna, and completed his studies at the University of Coimbra in Portugal in 1665, by which time he had also been ordained.

After Zheng left Europe in 1666, he worked as a missionary in India until 1668, when he was sent back to Macau due to the need of Chinese priests in China under the anti-Christian edict. In Macau, he studied a year of Chinese language. He then evangelized in Southern China from 1669 to 1671. When the anti-Christian edict was lifted, Zheng accompanied two foreign missionaries to Beijing. He contracted tuberculosis and died in the imperial capital in 1673 at the age of 40.

Zheng was buried at Zhalan Cemetery with other foreign missionaries. His tombstone, which contained Chinese and Latin inscriptions, was lost during the Cultural Revolution.
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