Abstract

From the very beginning, Polish Jesuits were aware of the fact that the general of the Society of Jesus required them to focus on completely different missionary areas than the Far East. Nevertheless, in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu one can find more than two hundred so-called indipetae (shortened version of Litterae ad Indiam petentes)—letters sent by Polish Jesuits to their general asking for foreign missions, especially in China. They were written by 114 Jesuit fathers and brothers but ultimately only four (Andrzej Rudomina, Michał Boym, Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki, Jan Bąkowski) ever preached the word of God in the Middle Kingdom. By analyzing the content of Polish indipetae letters, this paper underlines the most important sources of missionary vocations among Polish Jesuits, through comparison with similar letters from the fathers and brothers of other Jesuit provinces.

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