CARNEIRO, MELCHIOR

CARNEIRO, MELCHIOR. - B. at Coimbra in 1515 or 1519, Jesuit in 1543, d. at Macao on 19 Aug. 1583. In 1551 he was the first rector of the college of Evora, then for several months rector at 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, Giovanni Nuñez Barreto. Having moved to India, where he was consecrated bishop (1560), he waited at 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 at Goa. C. arrived at Macao in 1568, 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 incumbent, Leonardo de Sà, did not arrive until 1581. C. then withdrew to the Jesuit college at Macao, where he died.