CARNEIRO, MELCHIOR. - Born in Coimbra in 1515 or 1519, a Jesuit in 1543, died in Macao on 19 Aug. 1583. He was (1551) the first rector of the college of Evora, then for a few months rector in Lisbon. Having come to Rome (at the end of 1553), he was appointed (1554) titular bishop of Nicaea, coadjutor and second eventual successor of the patriarch of Ethiopia, João Nunes Barreto. Having moved to India, where he was consecrated bishop (1560), he waited at Cochin for the opportunity to penetrate into Abyssinia. Since Abyssinia remained closed, Pius V sent him to the Far East, while the new patriarch, André de Oviedo, continued to wait at Goa. C. arrived in 1568 at Macao, not as bishop of the city, but as bishop (today one would say apostolic administrator) of China and Japan. Meanwhile, in 1576, the episcopal see of Macao was erected, but the first actual titular, Leonardo de Sá, did not arrive until 1581. C. then retired to the Jesuit college of Macao, where he died.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: A. Franco, Imagem da virtude em o noviciado... de Coimbra, I. Evora 1719, pp. 261-69; L. Pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques... de l'ancienne mission de Chine, I. Sciangai 1937, p. 12; P. M. D'Elia, Fonti Riccione, I. Roma 1942, pp. 171-72; Streit, Bibl., IV, p. 214 and passim (inaccurate as to his life).

Edmondo Lamalle

@incollection{ec3_carneiro_melchior, author = {Lamalle, Edmondo}, title = {Carneiro, melchior}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {902}, 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/carneiro-melchior} }

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Carneiro, Melchior

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