CARNEIRO, MELCHIOR

CARNEIRO, MELCHIOR. - Born in Coimbra in 1515 or 1519, a Jesuit in 1543, died in Macao on 19 August 1583. He was (1551) the first rector of the college of Évora, then for a few months rector in Lisbon. Having come to Rome (late 1553), he was appointed (1554) titular Bishop of Nicaea, coadjutor and eventual second successor of the Patriarch of Ethiopia, GIOVANNI NUÑEZ BARRETO. Having moved to India, where he was consecrated bishop (1560), he waited in Cochin for an opportunity to enter Abyssinia. Since Abyssinia remained closed, Pius V sent him to the Far East, while the new patriarch, ANDREA OVIEDO, continued to wait in Goa. C. arrived in 1568 in Macao, not as bishop of the city, but as bishop (today one would say apostolic administrator) of China and Japan. Meanwhile, the episcopal see of Macao was erected in 1576, but the first actual incumbent, LEONARDO DE SÁ, did not arrive until 1581. C. then retired to the Jesuit college in Macao, where he died.