ANTONIO da ENCARNACÃO. - Portuguese Dominican, born in the last years of the sixteenth century at Evora. Having embarked for India at a very young age, on the return journey he stayed in Armenia; for several years provincial in these two places, he attended the general chapter in Rome in 1550, and in his homeland held the office of deputy of the Inquisition at Evora and Lisbon. He died in 1665 at Bemfica, prior of the convent of S. Domenico.
He wrote two accounts of the activity of the Dominicans and of the Order of Preachers in the East Indies, and translated several religious texts into Armenian. Greater merit is ascribed to him, however, for having written the life of fra' Luiz de Sousa, which includes a legendary episode that inspired Garret to dramatize it in one of his most famous theatrical works, Frei Luís de Sousa; he also completed the latter’s Storia di S. Domenico. In general A. proves to be an attentive and scrupulous chronicler, as well as an expert connoisseur of men and countries and a learned theologian animated by an active and sincere faith.
He wrote: Relações samarias de alguns serviços que fizeram a Deus e a estes reinos os Religiosos Dominicos nas partes da India Oriental ecc., Lisbon 1635; Breve Relação das cousas... que fizeram os Religiosos da Ordem dos Pregadores ecc., ibid. 1665; Vida de Frei Luís de Sousa, ibid. 1660; Addições à Historia de S. Domingos de Frei L. de Sousa, ibid. 1662, in the second part of which there is an Addição à fundação do Convento de S. Domingos de Bemfica.
Rugiero M. Ruggieri