Note 59 — Chapter LXI

Juan Bautista Morales was born in 1597, at Ecija; he entered the Dominican convent there, but was ordained in Mexico. In 1618 he came to Manila, and was assigned to the ministry among the Chinese there. In 1628 and 1629 he was in Camboja, but was unable to establish a mission there. In 1633 he went to China; after spending several years in the missions there, he was sent (1640) by his order to Europe, to make complaint regarding the practice of the “Chinese rites” by the Jesuits in China. Taking the overland route from Goa, Morales arrived in Italy in January, 1643; five years later, he escorted a band of missionaries to Manila, and in 1649 returned to China. He spent the rest of his life there, dying at Fo-Kien, September 17, 1664. (See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 358–369.)