Roman Hinderer

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

(Chinese TE).

A German missionary in China, born at Reiningen, near Mülhausen, in Alsace, 21 Sept., 1668; died 24 Aug., 1744, at Shang-ho, in Kiang-nan. On 6 September, 1688 he joined the Society of Jesus and became a member of the German province, whence he went to China in 1707. Here Emperor K'ang-hi invited him by personal request to collaborate in the great map and chart work in which the Jesuits, acting under imperial instructions, were then engaged. He laboured with de Mailla and Régis on the mapping of the provinces of Ho-nan, Kiang-nan, Che-kiang, and Fu-kien (cf. Du Halde, "Description de la Chine", The Hague, 1736, I, pref., xliii; and Richthofen, "China," Berlin, 1877, I, 682). Hinderer, however, was not only a man of science, but also a missionary who for forty years laboured as an apostle and by his zeal and efficiency achieved substantial results. He was twice placed at the head of the mission as visitor. He deserves special recognition for his introduction and ardent fostering among the neophytes of the devotion to the Sacred Heart (cf. Nilles, "De ratione festorum SS. Cordis", 5th ed., I, 323; Letierze, "Etude sur le Sacré Coeur", Paris, 1891, II, 104).

HUONDER, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionäre (Freiburg im Br., 1899), 188; PLATZWEG, Lebensbilder deutscher Jesuiten in auswärtigen Missionen (Paderborn, 1882), 109-211; DE GUILHERMY, Ménologie de la Compagnie de Jésus (German Assistancy), I, 156; CHANET, Vie du P. Romain Hinderer de la Compagnie de Jésus, l'Apôtre du Sacré-Coeur dans l'Eglise de Chine (Tournay, 1889); Welt-Bott (Vienna, 1758), nos. 669-85; cf. eight published letters of Hinderer in the Welt-Bott, nos. 161, 199, 209, 293, 548, 580; excerpts by FRIEDRICH in his Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte des 18 Jahrhunderts in Abhandl. d. k. Akad. d. Wissenschaften (Vienna), class III, vol. XIII, pt. II, p. 15; manuscript letter in the imperial archives at Vienna, Geistl. Angelegenheiten, no. 419, IV.

A. HUONDER