In the 36st year of the Wanli reign period of the great Ming dynasty (1608 CE), the Italian Jesuit Lazzaro Cattaneo arrives in Shanghai. He has been invited by the Xu Guangqi (徐光启), a wealthy Shanghainese intellectual who had sat for the imperial examinations and obtained the Jinshi (进士) degree. Xu Guangqi had a few years earlier been baptized by the Jesuits and wanted to spread the faith in his hometown.

Cattaneo arrives by boat from Nanjing, and is warmly welcomed by Xu, who has him settle down in a house near the city’s southern gate. Thanks to Xu, Cattaneo encounters little difficulty during his time Shanghai. The people of the city show Cattaneo the same respect already enjoyed by Xu, and before long they come to him seeking remedy for everything from sleeplessness to snakebites.

It appears that Cattaneo is pleased with Shanghai, a city he describes as not very important, albeit with 40 000 families living on the narrow streets inside its walls. In addition, he finds the Shanghainese intelligent and healthy, with a longer lifespan than in other places. After a few months, Cattaneo has already baptized fifty people (a number that would grow to two hundred by the end of his last and second year in the city).

It is in this setting that Cattaneo together with Xu on the 24th of December, 1609 for the first time in the city’s history celebrate Christmas. In front of a group of local believers seated in the 小堂, the small chapel, Cattaneo gives a sermon in Chinese. What impression he made on his Shanghainese listeners has been lost to history, but we can be sure that it was something out of the ordinary. Equally certain is the fact that none of this would have been possible without Xu Guangqi, who had provided Cattaneo with everything he needed.

Xu’s presence can still be felt in Shanghai. When the catholic mission resumed after the opium wars, the site of his grave was made a place of worship, and now hosts a red brick cathedral. The area, Xujiahui (徐家汇), still bears his name, as does the wider city district of which it is part.

(This account is exclusively based on Xiong Yuezhi [熊月之] and Zhou Wu’s [周武] book 上海-一座现代化都市的编年史 [Shanghai - chronicle of a modern metropolis].)