Ferdinand Verbiest

Ferdinand Verbiest was a Flemish Jesuit missionary and astronomer who was born in Pittem, West Flanders in 1623. He was sent to China as a missionary and became the imperial astronomer at the court of the Chinese emperor. Verbiest was a skilled astronomer and mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of astronomy in China. He was also a devout Jesuit who struggled with the tensions between his faith and the Chinese culture. Verbiest spent the rest of his life in China, where he died in 1688.