João da Costa (1574-1633)

Clergy of the Society of Jesus who worked mostly in Japan. He was born in Azeitão, around 1574, and died in Japan, on 8 October 1633. He entered the Society in India, in 1591. In October 1603 he was in Macau, where he listened to Theology. In January 1604 he was still there, but he must have set sail to Japan that year, for in 1607 he mastered the language well enough to be the head of the Hiroshima residence. Later on he was transferred to Isahaya, where he was in 1613. There is some information from 1608 which tells us that his personality was sometimes harsh; he was considered fit to serve the Society, but not for teaching. He returned to Macau in 1614 and, on 21 October 1616, he professed the four vows. After that, he went to Manila from where he managed to go to Japan, together with two Dominicans. The three of them disembarked in Japan in 1621. He was captured by the Japanese authorities and died in the pit torture.

Bibliography:

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). Monumenta Historica Japoniae, dir. de Josef Franz Schütte S. J., Roma, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1975.

Translated by: Dominique Faria.