CAMERINO, PAOLO DA

PAOLO DA CAMERINO. — The first Italian Jesuit in the Foreign Missions. A priest of the diocese of Camerino (from which he took his usual surname, as he had no family name), he entered the Society in 1540 and accompanied St Francis Xavier, who was setting out for India. Having landed at Goa in 1541, he remained there until his death (21 Jan. 1560), engaged in catechesis, in the instruction of the indigenous clergy at the College of St Paul, and in the care of the sick, for whom he built a hospital. He won great affection for his extreme simplicity, his candour and his charity. Some of his letters from India are published in *Monum. Historica S. I., Documenta Indica*, I, Rome 1948 ff.