BARRETO, FRANCISCO. – Portuguese missionary and Jesuit, born in Montemor-o-novo in 1599. Having departed for the Indies, he was professor of philosophy and theology there, rector at Coulam and Cochin, then provincial of Malabar (1656–59), and died while visitor of the Indies on 24 October 1664. Having come to Rome as procurator of the mission (1644–53), he published there a Relatione delle Missioni che appartengono alla Provincia di Malabar della Compagnia di Gesù (Rome 1645, reprinted and translated several times).
BIBL.: Sommervogel, I, col. 923; E. Rivière, Corrections et additions à la bibl. de la Comp. de Jésus, cols. 358–59 and 944; Streit, Bibl., V, p. 135; F. Rodrigues, A Companhia de Jesus em Portugal e nas Missões, 2nd ed., Oporto 1935, p. 31. Edmondo Lamalle