ADAMI, GIOVANNI MATTEO. — Jesuit missionary and martyr, born at Mazara, Sicily, in 1574, died on 12 October 1633. Of noble family, he was taken to Rome for his studies, but chose to enter the Society of Jesus and in 1602 went to Japan. Exiled to Macao during the persecution, he returned to Japan in disguise, resumed his ministry, but after three years was captured. The judge ordered him to flee, and he made his way back to Macao. Yet he reappeared once more in Japan, was seized and condemned: bound to a beam head-downwards, he died after five days of martyrdom.
BIBL.: L. Pagès, Histoire de la Religion Chrétienne au Japon depuis 1598 jusqu'à 1651, Paris 1860-70; L. Delplace, Le Catholisme au Japon, Brussels 1909-10. Egliberto Martire