方济各会中国教区中、西文档案史料介绍

Introduction of Archival Materials by Franciscan in Chinese and Western Languages in Sinitic Deanery

方济各会(Franciscan Order)是天主教最主要的托钵修会之一。1205年由意大利人方济各(San Francisco de Asis)创立,并于1209年获得罗马教皇批准。在中国元朝期间,该会便以罗马教廷名义,多次派遣传教士前来中国传教。1294年抵达中国的方济各会传教士孟德高维诺(Juan de Montecorvino)最后取得了成功,获准在华传教,并成为天主教在华的第一位主教。后来随着元朝的衰亡,方济各会也逐渐中断了它在中国的活动。自1492年哥伦布到达美洲大陆,西班牙人自墨西哥经由海上航道来到菲律宾之后,又一次激起了方济各会士们前往中国传播福音的激情。1579年至1632年明末清初,方济各会西班牙会士们几经尝试,历尽风险,虽然多次进入中国,但都未能获得留华传教。直到1633年,方济各会西班牙会士李安堂(Antonius a SantaMaria Caballero)才经由台湾进入中国内地传教,并成功在山东省建立了方济各会的第一个教区。在此后的近二百年里,尽管在中国的传教历尽艰辛,几经教难,但是方济各会还是不断扩大其传教的区域,沿海地区的福建、浙江、山东、广东等省,内陆的江西、湖北、山西、陕西、甘肃等省份都曾经是方济各会会士们传播福音的地方。从来华人数及传教的范围来看,方济各会可以说是仅次于耶稣会来华传教的天主教第二大修会,但是至今除香港、台湾有学者出版专著及论文研究方济各会来华传教史之外,大陆仅有极少数史学专家和教授开始关注方济各会中国教区的研究工作,并开始了相关的历史挡案文献及资料的查找和收集工作。本文试图就笔者所接触到的有关方济各会中国教区西文档案资料以及中文史料作一个简介,希望能够起到抛砖引玉的作用,借以促进对方济各会中国传教团历史的学术性研究工作。

The Franciscan Order was the main mendicant ecclesiae in the Catholic Church.Founded in 1205 by San Francisco de Asis,an Italian clergy,it had been authorized by the Holy Father in 1209.In Yuan Dynasty,this organization sent churchmen to China for several times in the name of Roman Court.The priest of the Franciscan Order,Juan de Montecorvino who arrived in China in 1294 was successfully allowed to do missionary work and became the fist bishop commissioned by the Catholic Church.The organization stopped its activities in China as soon as the Mongolian emperor fled from Khanbaliq.Evangelic enthusiasm to China had been stirred once again after Columbo got to American continent in 1492 and later the Spanish disembarked to Philippines via Mexico.The Spanish Franciscan churchmen braving hardships and dangers had got many chances to go into China and they had not been permitted to propagandize their belief.In 1633,Antonius a Santa Maria Caballero among the Spanish Franciscan clergies entered China inland via Taiwan and established favorably the first deanery in Shandong Province.In 200 years henceforth,the Franciscan Order had been extending its missionary districts with difficulties overcome and Fujian,Zhejiang,Shandong,Guangdong in coastland and Jiangxi,Hubei,Shanxi,Shanxi Gansu in inland were the palaces where Gospel was promulgated.The Franciscan Order was the biggest but Jesuitical Order viewed from the amounts of churchmen who came to China and breadth of missionary zone.However,there have been up to now in continent China a few of specialists and professors who pay attentions to the studies on the Chinese Parish of the Franciscan Order and begin to look for and collect relative materials from the historical achieves and records,while some scholars in Hongkong and Taiwan have published their special books and compositions on the Franciscan Missionary history.This article will introduce those achieves in Western languages and data in Chinese characters concerning the Chinese Parish of the Franciscan Order than the writer has seen.It is hopeful to get the effect of casting a brick to attract jade for the research works on the history of the Franciscan Missinary to China.