ANTONIO DA ENCARNAÇÃO. - Portuguese Dominican, b. in the last years of the 16th century at Evora. Having embarked at a very young age for India, on the return voyage he stopped in Armenia; for several years provincial in these two posts, he attended the general chapter of 1550 in Rome, and in his homeland he held the office of deputy of the Inquisition at Evora and at Lisbon. He died in 1665 at Bemfica, prior of the convent of St. Dominic.
He wrote two reports on the activity of the Dominicans and of the Order of Preachers in the East Indies, and translated several religious texts into Armenian. His greatest claim to merit, however, is assigned to him for having written the life of Fra' Luiz de Sousa, in which is included a legendary episode, which inspired Garret, who dramatized it, in one of his most famous theatrical works, Frei Luís de Sousa; he also completed the same author's History of St. Dominic. Generally A. reveals himself 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 etc., Lisbon 1635; Breve Relação das cousas... que fizeram os Religiosos da Ordem dos Pregadores etc., 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 2nd part of which is found an Addição à fundação do Convento de S. Domingos de Bemfica.
Rugiero M. Ruggieri