In 1596, Matteo Ricci taught the Chinese how to build a memory palace. The memory palace was a mental structure to be kept in one's own head as storage spaces for concepts that make up the sum of knowledge one wishes to retain. Ricci instructed the sons of Governor Lu advanced memory techniques so that they could pass advanced government exams. Success in the exams was the surest route to fame and fortune in the imperial Chinese state (not unlike the Graduate Record Exams that Chinese students take today for entry into American universities). Ricci entered into relation with the Chinese by first teaching them mnemonic techniques and then using these same memory techniques to teach Christianity. In this paper I will examine Ricci's use of the memory palace as a tool of conversion. I will focus primarily on his correspondence where he lays out the rules for building the memory palace. I will also compare Ricci's concept of the memory palace with that of St Augustine and his discussion on memory in his Confessions, it is my intention to examine the spiritual contours of memory, as is appears in the artistic form of the memoir, and how memory techniques can serve spiritual and quite prosaic aims.