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Marco della Tomba, O.F.M. Cap. (1726-1803), was an Italian Capuchin friar, who served as a missionary in North India, then called by its Persian name of Hindustan. He was a part of the Mission to Tibet financed by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, which still supervises the missionary activity of the Catholic Church throughout the world. Friar Marco appears to have lived and worked in Tibet, Nepal, and northern India, viz., Bihar and Bengal. He is credited for writing several essays and letters describing his experiences of Indian society and customs for the benefit of future missionaries, notably in two autobiographical essays: ''Diversi sistemi della religione dell'Indostano'' and ''Osservazioni sopra le relazioni che fa Monsieur Holwell Ingles''; several translations of Indian religious texts from Hindi to Italian; and 55 pieces of correspondence between himself and Cardinal Stefano Borgia, Secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide.〔〔 This friar was literally unknown or unheard of until his life and works were described by journals and articles published by Cambridge University Press and others, based on a research project in 1998 by David Lorenzen, an author who used Marco's surviving letters in the Vatican Library and the Vatican Secret Archives of the Propaganda Fide to write a personal and intellectual biography of him from Marco's own view. Lorenzen used the texts of Marco's surviving letters and essayswith material from various works to fill in the gaps. He thus wrote the friar's life, attributing to Marco words that he never wrote or spoke, in order to "construct" a "historical text".〔 ==Life== He was born Pietro Girolamo Agresti in 1726 to Crisostomo Agresti and Vittoria Luzietti in the village of Tomba, near the town of Senigallia, then part of the Province of Urbino in the Papal States, now in the Province of Ancona. There existed a Capuchin friary in his town, and he was clearly inspired by the lives of the friars to enter their Order. He was received into the novitiate of the Capuchin friars in Camerino on 25 April 1745 and given his religious name of Marco. He professed solemn vows as a member of the Order one year later. Volunteering for the foreign missions, he was sent to serve the Tibet Mission which had been entrusted to the members of his Capuchin ecclesiastical province by the Propaganda Fide. After departing Italy, Marco arrived in Chandernagore in the region of Bengal on 8 October 1757.〔 What Marco found was a small Capuchin community struggling to cope with the devastation caused by the conquest of the French fort by British forces. At the order of the head of the prelature, he left for Bihar on 29 January of the following year, where he took up the post of military chaplain for the French forces commanded by Jean Law in Bettiah. Marco spent much of his time in Patna, Chuhari, and in the mission station in Bettiah - near the Nepal border and more or less, directly south of Kathmandu. During this time, he recorded and commented on the number of events of the late eighteenth century as essays, letters, and translations, including religious texts, beliefs, and practices in India. He was ordered by his superiors to return to Italy in 1773, where he remained until 1783. During this time he made a number of requests either to be sent back to India or to Brazil, as he knew Portuguese. Marco was sent back to India in 1783 and lived mostly in Bettiah, Patna, Chandernagore, and Bhagalpur. He died in Bhagalpur on 13 March (or 7 June) 1803 at an age of 77.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marco della Tomba」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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