The Missionary Activity

This chapter describes the introduction of Christianity in Taiwan. The first contact of Taiwan with Christianity was in the context of Jesuit missions, when the yearly nao from Macao to Japan was shipwrecked in northern Taiwan in 1582. The 300 persons on board had to stay in Taiwan from 16 July to 30 September, until they managed to go back to Macao in a smaller ship they constructed. Among them were four Jesuit priests and one brother. The first Christian ceremonies ever held in Taiwan were conducted at that time since the Jesuits celebrated mass in their camp. The flow of missionaries entering Taiwan intensified in the first half of the 1630s, when eight Franciscans arrived in 1633.