Valentim Carvalho (1559-1631)

Clergy of the Society of Jesus who worked mostly in Japan. He was born in Lisbon in 1559 and died in Goa in 1631. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus in Évora on 4th December, 1576. In 1594 he travelled to the East as the companion of D. Luís Cerqueira. Then he went to Macau where he professed the four vows on 19th February, 1596. He studied Theology and was examined by Cerqueira at the end of the fourth year of his studies. He left for Japan, together with the bishop, having arrived at Nagasaki on 5th August, 1598. In order to learn the Japanese language he then moved to the Miyako residence. In March 1601 he left for Macau in order to become rector of the college and consultant of Alexander Valignano. In 1609 he returned to Japan, having stayed at the Omura residence for ten months. In 1611 he became the first provincial in Japan, a position he held until 1617. His administration raised controversy in the province, and his relationship with his mates and with the bishop was greatly criticized by most missionaries. In February 1614, after the death of D. Luís Cerqueira, he was appointed administrator of the bishopric by the diocesan priests. His nomination was not well accepted inside the Society and was contested by the Spanish-sponsored mendicants. His performance as governor was also contested afterwards by the priests who, enthused by the Spanish clergies of the mendicant orders, tried to annul his decision and thus created the Nagasaki schism. As consequence of the expulsion edict decreed by the Japanese administration, he returned to Macau in November 1614, together with other exiled people. In October 1615 he was dismissed of the office of provincial; the decision was held in Rome in 1615 and was based on information conveyed by several members of the Japanese mission between 1612 and 1613. He remained in Macau until 1625, the year he left for India to be the provincial, a position he held until1629. He was the author of a Eulogy.

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).

Translated by: Maria das Mercês Pacheco