Odoric of Pordenone - Life

Life

Odoric was born at Villanova, a hamlet now belonging to the town of Pordenone in Friuli (Italy), in or about 1286. He came from a Czech family named Mattiussi. According to the ecclesiastical biographers, in early years he took the vows of the Franciscan order and joined their convent at Udine, the capital of Friuli.

Friar Odoric was dispatched to the East, where a remarkable extension of missionary action was then taking place, about 1316-1318, and did not return till the end of 1329 or beginning of 1330; but, as regards intermediate dates, all that we can deduce from his narrative or other evidence is that he was in western India soon after 1321 (pretty certainly in 1322) and that he spent three years in China between the opening of 1323 and the close of 1328. On one of his trips, his ship was nearly capsized by a typhoon but they landed safely in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines. He is said to have held a mass there, in around 1324. That would have predated the mass held in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, which is generally regarded as the first mass in the Philippines, by some 197 years. However, historian William Henry Scott concluded after examining Oderic's writings about his travels that he likely never set foot on Philippine soil and, if he did, there is no reason to think that he celebrated mass.

Friar Odoric's route to the East started from Venice, then Constantinople. He then headed by sea to Trebizond and thence by land to Erzerum to Tabriz and Sultanieh, in all of which places the Franciscans had houses. From Sultanieh he proceeded by Kashan and Yazd, and turning thence followed a somewhat indirect route by Persepolis and the Shiraz and Baghdad regions, to the Persian Gulf. At Ormus he embarked for India, landing at Thana, near Bombay. At this city four brethren of his order, three of them Italians and the fourth a Georgian, had shortly before met death at the hands of the Muslim governor. The bones of the martyred friars had been collected by Friar Jordanus Catalani, a Dominican (first bishop in India, Diocese of Quilon) who carried them to Supera- the Suppara of the ancient geographers, near the modern Vasai, about 26 miles north of Bombay, and buried them there. Odoric tells that he disinterred these relics and carried them with him on his further travels. In the course of these he visited Malabar, touching at Pandarani (20 m. north of Calicut), at Cranganore, and at Kulam or Quilon, proceeding thence, apparently, to Ceylon and to the shrine of St Thomas at Maylapur near Madras.

From India he sailed in a junk to Sumatra, visiting various ports on the northern coast of that island, and thence to Java, to the coast (it would seem) of Borneo, to Champa (Indochina), and to Guangzhou (Canton), at that time known as Chin-Kalan or Great China (Mahachin). From Guangzhou he travelled overland to the great ports of Fujian, at one of which, then called Zayton Xiamen (Amoy) harbour, he founded two houses of his order; in one of these he deposited the bones of the brethren who had suffered in India.

From Fuzhou he struck across the mountains into Zhejiang and visited Hangzhou, then renowned, under the name of Cansay, Khanzai, or Quinsai (i.e. Kin gsze or royal residence), as the greatest city in the world, of whose splendours Odoric, like Marco Polo, Marignolli, or Ibn Batuta, gives notable details. Passing northward by Nanjing and crossing the Yangzi, Odoric embarked on the Grand Canal of China and travelled to the headquarters of the Great Khan (probably Yesün Temür Khan), namely the city of Cambalec (AKA Cambaleth, Cambaluc, &c.) or present-day Beijing, where he remained for three years, probably from 1324 to 1327, attached, no doubt, to one of the churches founded by Archbishop John of Monte Corvino, at this time in extreme old age.

His return voyage is less clearly described. Returning overland across Asia, through the Land of Prester John (possibly Mongolia), and through Casan, the adventurous traveller seems to have entered Tibet, and even perhaps to have visited Lhasa. After this we trace the friar in northern Persia, in Millestorte, once famous as the Land of the Assassins in the Elburz highlands. No further indications of his homeward route (to Venice) are given, though it is almost certain that he passed through Tabriz. The vague and fragmentary character of the narrative, in this section, forcibly contrasts with the clear and careful tracing of the outward way.

During a part at least of these long journeys the companion of Odric was James of Ireland, an Irishman, as appears from a record in the public books of Udine, showing that shortly after Odorics death a present of two marks was made to this Irish friar, Socio beau Fratris Odorici, amore Dei et Odorici. Shortly after his return Odoric betook himself to the Minorite house attached to St Anthony's at Padua, and it was there that in May 1330 he related the story of his travels, which was taken down in homely Latin by Friar William of Solagna.

Travelling towards the papal court at Avignon, Odoric fell ill at Pisa, and turning back to Udine, the capital of his native province, died there.