Gabriel de Magalhães

Gabriel de Magalhães (Chinese: 安文思; pinyin: Ānwénsī, 1610 - 6 May 1677) was an early Portuguese Jesuit missionary to China who founded the original St. Joseph's Church in Peking.

Magalhães was born in Pedrogao, Coimbra, Portugal, a member of the same family as Ferdinand Magellan.

After first spending six years in the Portuguese colony of Goa, Magalhães arrived in Hangzhou in 1640. He was then sent to Chengdu in Sichuan and arrived in August 1642. He began a close association with fellow jesuit Lodovico Buglio in Chengdu, and started to study Chinese under Buglio's guidance. Buglio would become his biographer 35 years later.

Both Magalhães and Buglio were pressed to served under the rebel "King of the West", Zhang Xianzhong (Wade–Giles: Chang Hsien-chung) after Zhang captured Sichuan in 1644. Initially Magalhães wrote sympathetically of Zhang's attempts at empire-building in Chengdu, but became fearful when Zhang started his campaign of terror in Sichuan.

After Zhang was defeated by the Manchus in 1647, the pair was captured by Hooge. In his plea to avoid execution, Magalhães claimed the German jesuit Adam Schall as their "elder brother" who was recognized by the Manchu commander. They was taken to the Forbidden City in Peking in 1648 where they was well-received by the Shunzhi emperor, and were given a church, house and income. He and Buglio undertook the construction of the original St. Joseph’s Church in Peking (originally known as Dong Tang or Eastern Church). Magalhães was given the duty of maintaining various Western machinery, including the clocks at the court of the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors. He built a number mechanical devices, including a carillon and turret clock that played a Chinese tune on the hour.

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