Archives

On 21 June 1629, the sky above Beijing darkened for a few moments. To astronomers, it was a partial solar eclipse. To the Chinese imperial court, however, the phenomenon had a much deeper significance. For centuries in China, eclipses had been interpreted as messages from Heaven...

On 5 June 1546, Paul III signed the brief “Exponi nobis”, which addressed how men who did not belong to the original group of highly qualified priests of the Society could nonetheless belong to it and serve its mission. The brief did so by establishing the grade of coadjutor...

On 22 May 1622, Pedro Páez died in Gorgora (Gondar, Ethiopia). He was born in Olmeda de las Fuentes (Madrid, Spain) in 1564 and entered the Society at the age of 20 at the novitiate in Villarejo de Fuentes (Cuenca, Spain), although older biographies state that he entered in Coimbra...

Four hundred and eighty-four years ago, the Apostle of Asia stepped ashore in Portuguese India – marking both the end of a long formation and the beginning of a ministry that would span a continent. The arrival of St Francis Xavier (1506–1552) in Goa, India, on 6 May 1542 was at once a...