ADAMI, GIOVANNI MATTEO. – Jesuit missionary and martyr, born in Mazara, Sicily, in 1574, died on 12 October
1633. Of noble family, brought to Rome for his studies, he preferred to enter the Society of Jesus and in 1602 went to Japan. Exiled to Macao during the persecution, he returned to Japan in disguise and resumed his ministry, but after three years he was captured. The judge ordered him to flee, and he again set out for Macao. But having reappeared in Japan once more, he was seized and condemned: bound to a beam with his head downward, he died after five days of martyrdom.
BIBL.: L. Paglia, Histoire de la Religion Chrétienne au Japon depuis 1596 jusqu'à 1631, Paris 1869–70; L. Delplace, Le Catholicisme au Japon, Brussels 1909–10. Egilberto Martire