Publication Date
2009
Categories
Clergy of the Society of Jesus who worked mostly in Japan. He was born in Torres Vedras around 1580 and died in Japan in 1654. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus in Évora in 1596 and had Bento Fernandes for a colleague. He sailed to India on 4th April, 1600, on board of the São Valentim. He left for Macau on 1st May, 1601, and in 1603 he was a third-year Philosophy student at the Madre de Deus College. Then he studied Theology for 4 years, having as teachers Francico Boldrino and Manuel Dias Júnior. He was ordained priest in Macau in 1608 and left for Japan the following year, reaching Nagasaki on 29th June. Then he went to Arima, where he learned the Japanese language and taught Latin. At the end of 1611 he was sent to Miyako, where on 10th December, 1611, he witnessed the donation João Baptista Porro made of all his assets to the province of Japan. In February 1613 he was minister, consultant and spiritual advisor of the rector of this Jesuit residence, becoming superior of the Miyako between the end of 1614 and the last months of 1615. He professed the four vows on 1st October, 1617, in the presence of Mateus de Couros, at the home of a Christian called Kyuji João. He was the secretary of Mateus de Couros while the latter was superior. With the arrest of Carlo Spínola on 13th December, 1618, he was also the treasurer. He was vice provincial and apostolic administrator between 1632 and 1633. After suffering six hours of pit torture, he apostatized and was expelled from the Society on 1st November, 1636, by decision of Manuel Dias, visitator of China and Japan. He took the Japanese name of Sawano Chuan and became an interpreter in matters of commerce.
Bibliography:
Monumenta Historica Japoniae, dir. de Josef Franz Schütte S. J., Roma, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1975. COSTA, João Paulo Oliveira e, O Cristianismo no Japão e o Episcopado de D. Luís de Cerqueira, dissertação de doutoramento em História apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1998 (texto fotocopiado). COUTINHO, Valdemar, O fim da presença portuguesa no Japão, dissertação de mestrado em História dos Descobrimentos e da Expansão Portuguesa apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1996 (texto fotocopiado).
Translated by: Maria das Mercês Pacheco
Bibliography:
Monumenta Historica Japoniae, dir. de Josef Franz Schütte S. J., Roma, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1975. COSTA, João Paulo Oliveira e, O Cristianismo no Japão e o Episcopado de D. Luís de Cerqueira, dissertação de doutoramento em História apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1998 (texto fotocopiado). COUTINHO, Valdemar, O fim da presença portuguesa no Japão, dissertação de mestrado em História dos Descobrimentos e da Expansão Portuguesa apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1996 (texto fotocopiado).
Translated by: Maria das Mercês Pacheco