CACELLA, ESTÊVÃO. - Portuguese missionary, b. at Avis in 1585, d. at Shigatse on 6 March 1630. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1604, he set out in 1614 for India, where he worked in the Malabar mission. He is chiefly known for an attempt to penetrate into Tibet. Entrusted with exploring the kingdom of Utsang, west of Lhasa, he set out from Cochin with Fr. Cabral (v.) in April 1626, passed into Bengal, crossed the Himalayas by the passes of Bhutan, and in November 1627 received a warm welcome from the ruler of Utsang, in his capital Shigatse, on the Tsangpo River. He went a second time to Shigatse three years later, but died there after a few days at the age of only 45; the planned mission was then abandoned. An account by Fr. C. of the countries he visited is of interest for geography and ethnography, and has been published by Wessels, pp. 314-32.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: C. Wessels, Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, The Hague 1924, pp. 120-63; Streit, Bibl., V, p. 112.

Edmondo Lamalle

@incollection{ec3_cacella_estevao, author = {Lamalle, Edmondo}, title = {Cacella, estevão}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {267}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cacella-estevao} }

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Cacella, Estêvão

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