Alexandre de Rhodes, S.J. (AKA A-Lịch-Sơn Đắc-Lộ) (15 March 1591 – 5 November 1660) was a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, the first trilingual Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary, published in Rome, in 1651.
Rhodes was born in Avignon, now in France, but then still an independant Papal State. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Rome on 24 April 1612 to dedicate his life to missionary work. He arrived in Indochina about 1619, where a Jesuit mission had been established in Hanoi in 1615. Rhodes spent ten years in and around the Court at Hanoi during the rule of Trịnh Tùng and Trịnh Tráng. Rhodes spent tAlexandre de Rhodes, S.J. (AKA A-Lịch-Sơn Đắc-Lộ) (15 March 1591 – 5 November 1660) was a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, the first trilingual Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary, published in Rome, in 1651.
Rhodes was born in Avignon, now in France, but then still an independant Papal State. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Rome on 24 April 1612 to dedicate his life to missionary work. He arrived in Indochina about 1619, where a Jesuit mission had been established in Hanoi in 1615. Rhodes spent ten years in and around the Court at Hanoi during the rule of Trịnh Tùng and Trịnh Tráng. Rhodes spent twelve years in Vietnam studying under Francisco de Pina, a fellow Jesuit. In 1624, he was sent to the East Indies, arriving in Cochin-China on a boat with fellow Jesuit Girolamo Maiorica. He travelled to Tongking, Vietnam in 1627, where he worked until 1630 when he was forced to leave. He was expelled then from Vietnam as Trịnh Tráng had become concerned about the spread of Catholicism within his realm. In his reports, Rhodes said that he had converted more than 6,000 Vietnamese people. He wrote that daily conversation in Vietnam "resembles the singing of birds".
From Vietnam, Rhodes went to Macau where he spent ten years, before returning to Vietnam. This time he went to the lands of the Nguyễn Lords, mainly around Huế. Rhodes spent six years in this part of Vietnam until he aroused the displeasure of lord Nguyễn Phúc Lan and was condemned to death.
As his sentence was reduced to exile, Rhodes returned to Rome by 1649 and pleaded for increased funding for Catholic missions to Vietnam by telling somewhat exaggerated stories about the natural riches to be found in Vietnam. This plea helped instigate the creation of the Paris Foreign Missions Society in 1659. As neither the Portuguese nor the Pope showed an interest in the Vietnamese project proposed by Alexandre de Rhodes, Rhodes, with Pope Alexander III's agreement, found secular volunteers in Paris. These were François Pallu and Pierre Lambert de la Motte, who became the first members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
Rhodes himself was sent to Persia instead of back to Vietnam. Rhodes died in Isfahan in Persia on 5 November 1660. He was buried in the New Julfa Armenian Cemetery....more
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