BROLLO, BASILIO

Vicar apostolic to China; b. Gemona, Italy, March 25, 1648; d. San-yūan, China, July 16, 1704. He became a friar at Bassano in 1666 and a priest in 1674. He followed Bp. Bernardino della chiesa to the Orient in 1680 and landed in Guangzhou (Canton), China, on Aug. 27, 1684, assuming the name Yeh Tsun-hsiao. Between 1685 and 1700, acting as Della Chiesa's provicar, he was by his initiatives and writings the main instrument by which were established the vicariates apostolic to rid the missions of the obsolescent Portuguese and Spanish patronage. Despite continual illness, Brollo, with the bishop, visited and attended the missions of Jianxi (Chianghsi) and Fujian (Fu-chien) (1686), Chechiang (1687), and Hu-kuang and Chiang-nan (1689); he took up residence at Nanjing (Nanking) in 1692. Named vicar apostolic of Shensi, he left for his see in June 1700. Arriving at Xi'an (Sian) with Antonio Laghi, OFM, in May 1701, he began to visit the missions of Sian and Sanyuan and Hangzhong (Hanchung) and he opened new stations at Meixian (Kaiying) and Fengxiang (Fengsiang). In 1703 he moved to San-yūan to establish his headquarters there, but he fell ill and died. He was truly great for his learning, wisdom, zeal, and supreme charity. He left numerous mission letters, reports, and essays, as well as five Chinese works: T’ien-chu-chiao Yao Chu-lüeh (Compendium of Catholic Prayers and Doctrine, 1687); Chien-cheng Shengshih Kuei-i (Confirmation's Notion and Rite, MS, author's preface 1689); Han Tzu Hsi I (a Chinese-Latin dictionary arranged by radicals), MS 1694; a Chinese-Latin dictionary alphabetically arranged by transliterated phonetics (MS 1699), a model much followed and plagiarized; and Brevis Methodus Confessionis Instituendae, published in transliterated Chinese by Pedro de la Piñuela, OFM, in his edition of Francisco Varo, OP, Arte de la Lengva Mandarina (1703).

Bibliography: Sinica Franciscana, v. 6, ed. g. mensaert (Rome 1961). a. s. rosso, Apostolic Legations to China of the Eighteenth Century (South Pasadena, Calif. 1948); "Pedro de la Piñuela, O.F.M., Mexican Missionary to China and Author," Franciscan Studies 8 (1948) 250–274.

[a. s. rosso]