Blessed Odoric of Pordenone: Prominent Missionary of the Middle Ages

On January 14, Franciscans honor the memory of Blessed Odoric of Pordenone (c. 1286–1331), one of the most prominent missionaries of the later Middle Ages. 

Devoted to prayer, missionary life

A native of the village of Villanova, near Pordenone in the Friuli region of Northern Italy, Odoric joined the Friars Minor about 1302. He devoted his early life to eremitical prayer and preaching but then felt the desire to evangelize in other lands. Here Odoric shared one of Francis’s own inspirations. The Rule of the Friars Minor was the first religious rule to mention missionary activity among nonbelievers. There Francis told his brothers: “The Lord says: ‘Behold I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be prudent as serpents and simple as doves.’ Let any brother, then, who desires by divine inspiration to go among the Saracens and other nonbelievers, go with the permission of his minister and servant” (Earlier Rule, 16).

Modern Chinese depiction (c. 1930s) of Odoric preaching

Evangelizing in Asia, Middle East

And so about 1310 Odoric departed Friuli for the Balkans and then among non-Christian peoples in Southern Russia. After returning home for a time, he left Venice 1317/18 as a missionary to Asia. He would be gone for over a dozen years on a remarkable journey. Traveling first to Constantinople, he spent some time at Franciscan houses in what are now Armenia and Iran. Sailing down the Persian Gulf, Odoric arrived in India in 1322, visiting the tomb of the apostle Thomas. He then traveled east, passing though Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Borneo, and Vietnam to China, where he spent three years evangelizing in Beijing (1324–27). His companion for much of his journey was a Brother James of Ireland.

Odoric’s travel account becomes best-seller

We do not know many details about their return journey, but Odoric and James arrived back in Italy in 1330. In Padua Odoric dictated an account of his voyages, with many fascinating details about the various cultures of Asia. The friars originally intended to go to Avignon to give a report of their travels to the Pope and recruit more missionaries, when Odoric fell ill and returned to his native land, dying at Udine in January 1331. Odoric’s account of his travels became somewhat of a medieval “best-seller.” A cult to him grew up in Udine almost immediately, with reports of many healings at his tomb.

Tomb of Odoric in Udine, Italy

Vast network makes Odoric's travels possible

Odoric’s missionary travels were possible because of the vast network of territories, extending from Southern Russia through Central Asia to the Pacific, ruled at the time by the Mongols with their tolerant religious policies (the “Pax Mongolica”). Beginning in the 1250s, Franciscans and Dominicans were able to establish bases in the Middle East. Then, under the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty, with Kublai Khan in the 1290s, Franciscan missionaries had settled in several Chinese cities, including Beijing, where they were able to evangelize the people. However, when the Yuan were replaced by the native Ming dynasty in 1368, these relationships between China and Western Christians ended. Odoric’s title as “blessed” was confirmed by Pope Benedict XIV in 1755.

The Church of San Francesco, in Udine, Italy, dates from the 1260s.

Here Odoric is seen rescuing the relics of Franciscan martyrs in India from the Church of San Francesco in Udine.

Learn more

Check out an informative talk about Odoric and his travels by Dr. Annalia Marchisio (with extensive PowerPoints).

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Main image: A 14th-century depiction of Odoric and friar missionary companions departing on their journey east also shows a few Dominican friars among them.