MICHAEL ALPHONSUS SHEN FUZONG, JESUIT

MICHAEL ALPHONSUS SHEN FUZONG, JESUIT - 2 SEPTEMBER

MICHAEL ALPHONSUS SHEN FUZONG, JESUIT

Michael Alphonsus Shen Fuzong - or Fu-Tsung - was born c. 1658 in Nanking of Chinese parents who converted to Christianity. [Apparently, he spoke Latin fluently.]

HIS TRIP TO EUROPE

He travelled to Europe with a Flemish Jesuit, Fr Philippe Couplet, leaving Macao in December 1681 and reaching Paris in 1684. There they had an audience with Louis XIV at Versailles. They went on to Rome in 1685 and had an audience with Pope Innocent XI. Shen arrived in England in March 1687 and soon became a well-known figure at James II's court.

THE PORTRAIT

The king commissioned Shen's portrait from Godfrey Kneller shortly after his arrival. He is depicted in Chinese robes, holding a crucifix and looking towards the window as the light illuminates his face, suggesting divine inspiration. The naval surgeon, James Yonge, saw Shen at Windsor in July 1687, describing him as 'a young, pale-faced fellow who had travelled from his country and become a papist (his picture being done very well like him in one of the King's lodgings)'.

HE ENTERED THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

Shen worked at the Bodleian Library in Oxford during the summer of 1687, helping the Librarian, Thomas Hyde, to catalogue and translate the Chinese books and manuscripts. When the king visited in September he asked after Shen and remarked that 'he had his picture to the life hanging in his room next to the bed chamber'. Shen left England in 1688 for Lisbon, where he entered the Society of Jesus as a novice. He died [of fever] near Mozambique on September 2, 1691, on his return to China.

(Source:

https://www.rct.uk/collection/405666/michael-alphonsus-shen-fu-tsung-d-1691)

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