Year 2017: Typhoon – “Hato” & The Tomás Pereira Library

The Macau Ricci Institute library, Tomás Pereira Library (MRI Library) lost all precious book collections while typhoon ‘Hato’ wreaked havoc throughout the city, around 25,000 books and journals in Religion, Philosophy, History, Language and more, in both Chinese and English were destroyed by the storm. The library was named after Fr. Tomás Pereira, S.J. (1645-1708). It is an inseparable part of the Macau Ricci Institute, to be an important role in the society to collect all valuable collections and reference books in Jesuits, Philosophy, Religion and Macau History. The library donated approximately 500 invaluable ancient books about the old Macau in 1940s, cultural exchange, literature, and Jesuits missionary to Instituto Cultural (IC) in June 2017.

Unfortunately, 11,341 Chinese books or series, 8,296 Western books, and 355 periodicals (201 Chinese and 154 Western titles) of our library were damaged by ‘Hato’ in August and the library was closed due to the lack of ideal place for rebuilding. We have lost approximately MOP 15,000,000 of books value.

After the typhoon, and under the leadership of our director Fr. Stephan Rothlin, we relocated our office at St. Joseph Seminary and the Library at University of Saint Joseph Macau, a peaceful and sacred place for a brand-new beginning. We are grateful to have the support of the Bishop of Macau, Fr. Stephen Lee Bun Sang, who helped the Macau Ricci Institute immensely by providing us a space for our office and have the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Saint Joseph Macau, a spacious and quiet place to rebuild our library.