Girolamo Maiorica

[2] He is known for compiling numerous Roman Catholic works written in the Vietnamese language's demotic chữ Nôm script, both on his own and with assistance from local converts.

Afterwards, he returned to Macau and traveled to Fai-Fo (present-day Hội An) in 1624 in the same boat as Alexandre de Rhodes, João Cabral, and two or three other Jesuits.

In 1653, he was promoted to provincial of the Jesuits' Japan Province (which included Tonkin, Đàng Trong, Makassar, Cambodia, and Hainan island).

[10] These works are seen as a vital resource for research into chữ Nôm, as well as historical dialects, vocabulary, and phonology of Vietnamese.

Many of the terms he coined would later become popular, such as sự thương khó 事傷𧁷 (passion), rỗi linh hồn 磊靈魂 (salvation of souls), tin kính 信敬 (to believe, appearing in the creeds), khiêm nhường chịu lụy 謙讓召累 (humility and submission), hằng sống 恒𤯩 (eternal life), cả sáng 奇創 (hallowed, appearing in the Lord's Prayer), etc.

Philipphê Bỉnh (Felippe do Rosario), a Vietnamese Jesuit priest who spent his final years in Lisbon, provided additional important information about Maiorica's works.

In the half century since then, progress has been made in verifying the authenticity of, preserving, transliterating, and publishing Maiorica's works, which once were assumed to be completely lost.

[4][16] Exchanges of letters between Jesuits and from the text itself make clear that the works were written with the assistance of Vietnamese converts.

[17] Maiorica's works can be divided into four basic genres: hagiographies, stories adapted from scripture, sermons, and catechetical writings.

[1] Additionally, Philipphê Bỉnh states in his writings that Maiorica also participated in an effort to translate the prayers of the Mass into Vietnamese.