Francisco Varo (October 4, 1627 – January 31, 1687) was a Spanish Dominican friar, missionary in China, and author of the second grammar of Mandarin Chinese in a western language, "Arte de la lengua mandarina" (1703).
The trip to Manila in the Philippines was delayed by the presence of Dutch ships, but they started out from April 12, 1648, arriving in early July.
It was planned form the beginning that Varo go to China, but he still spent a year among the Chinese community in Manila to learn the language.
On July 10, 1649, he departed from Pasig, near Manila, and arrived on August 3 in Fujian, at a part near Amoy, and then moved onto Fuan to his mission.
He was among the few who managed to master the complicated form of the language of the legal system and formal hearings.
During his exile in 1671 he wrote "The Manifestor and Declaration", two treatises heavily influenced by the thought of his superior Juan Bautista de Morales and were later used as the basis of the decrees of the nuncios in the East Indies and China.