Acquaviva, Rodolfo, Blessed

ACQUAVIVA, RODOLFO, beato. - Jesuit missionary and martyr, b. at Atri on 2 Oct. 1550, son of the duke of Atri Giangirolamo, nephew of Claudio Acquaviva, fifth general of the Society of Jesus. He had to overcome his family's opposition in order to enter the novitiate of Rome in 1568, where he had as a companion St. Stanislaus Kostka. Having obtained the missions, he set out from Rome in 1577, receiving priestly ordination at Lisbon, and landed at Goa in Nov. 1578. At the end of the following year, he was placed at the head of the small mission sent to the court of the "Great Mogul" Akbar at Fatehpur Krisi. He remained there three years, even when his companion Antonio Monserrate returned to Goa; he learned Persian and won the sovereign's benevolence through the austerity of his life and his ardent conviction, but he could not overcome the opposition of the Muslims nor make conversions.

His mission is also important for the introduction of European art at the court of the Indian sultans (Italian paintings and Flemish engravings, which were imitated by the court painters). On his return to Goa in Feb. 1583, A. was appointed superior of the mission on the island of Salsete, near Goa. But after barely a week, he was killed at Cuncolim (27 July 1583) together with his companions Fathers Alfonso Pacheco, a Spaniard, and Pietro Berno, of Ascona in Ticino, Antonio Francisco and Brother Francesco Aranha, Portuguese. He was beatified with them by Leo XIII in 1893.