Belchior Carneiro Leitão
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Belchior Carneiro Leitão, often known as Melchior Carneiro (Carnero) (b. of a noble family at Coimbra, Portugal; d. at Macao, 19 August 1583) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary bishop. He was one of the first Jesuit bishops.
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[edit] Life
He entered the Society of Jesus, 25 April, 1543, was appointed in 1551 the first rector of the College of Evora, and shortly after transferred to the rectorship of the College of Lisbon. When, in 1553, Simon Rodriguez, the first provincial of Portugal, was summoned to Rome to answer charges made against his administration, the visitor, Nadal, assigned him Carneiro as a companion.
In the meantime King John of Portugal, a friend and patron of the Jesuits, had written both to Pope Julius III and to Ignatius Loyola, requesting the appointment of a Jesuit as Patriarch of Ethiopia. The pope chose Joao Nunez Barreto, giving him at the same time two coadjutors with the right of succession, Andre de Oviedo, titular bishop of Hieropolis, and Carneiro, titular bishop of Nicaea. They were consecrated in 1555, and were the first Jesuits to be raised to the episcopal dignity. The pope had given them an order of obedience to accept consecration, and Loyola acquiesced, considering that the dignity carried with it hardship and suffering rather than honour.
Unable to enter his missionary field of Ethiopia, Carneiro set out for the Indies and landed at Goa. He laboured there on the Malabar coast until 1567, when he was appointed first bishop of Japan and China, which office he seems to have renounced soon after, for in 1569 Leonard de Saa succeeded him. He retired to the home of the Society of Jesus at Macao, where he died.
[edit] Works
Carneiro wrote some letters of historical interest, one from Mozambique, one from Goa, and two from Macao. They are printed in various collections.
[edit] References
- Mon. Hist. Soc. Jesu. (Madrid, 1894-96);
- Vita Ignatii Loyolæ, I-IV, passim; Literæ Quadrimestres, I-IV, passim;
- Sommervogel, Bibl. de la c. de J., II, s.v.
[edit] External links
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
