ALMEIDA, LUIS de. — Missionary in Japan, born in Lisbon around 1525, died in October 1583 on the island of Amacusa. Having completed medical studies in his homeland, A. embarked to seek his fortune in the East through commerce and the practice of his profession. In 1555 he founded an orphanage for foundlings at Oita, in the kingdom of Bungo (Japan); in the same year (?), he entered the Society of Jesus as a coadjutor brother. His medical foundations then underwent further development: in 1557 a large hospital with an adjoining lazaretto was established, and in 1559 a hospital for the more prosperous Japanese, with a surgical clinic. A., who personally carried out treatments and operations until 1561, provided instruction that was chiefly practical, and introduced various European methods of treatment into Japan. After 1561, having to entrust the Oita hospital to Japanese physicians, he devoted himself entirely to the mission, of which he had become procurator. To employ him in a more direct apostolate, the visiting father Alessandro Valignano sent him to Macao, where he was ordained a priest by mons. Carneiro (1580). But A.’s health had by then been undermined by his labors, and he died a few years after his return to Japan. Many of his letters (1557–78) were included in various contemporary collections (Cartas do Japão, etc.); they are listed and analyzed in the Bibliotheca Missionum.
und kommentiert von G. Scharhammer und E. A. Voretsch, Lipsia 1926, passim: D. Schilling, Das Schulwesen der Jesuiten in Japan, Münster in Vessl. 1931, pp. 40–68; P. Delattre, Un institut de médecine de missions au Japon au XVIe siècle, in Revue d'histoire des missions, 2 (1934), pp. 16–28; Streit, Bibl., IV, pp. 383–426. Edmondo Lamalle