CORSI, FRANCESCO. - Missionary in India, born at Pistoia in 1568, died at Agra on 1 Aug. 1636. He entered the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1587 and, after the usual studies, departed for the province of Goa. He was immediately assigned to the Mogul mission, that is, to the Muslim emperors or shahs of central India, Akbar (d. in 1604), Jahangir (d. in 1627), and Jahan (d. in 1658); he remained there for 34 years, first at Lahore, then at Agra at the shah’s court, whom he had to accompany on his movements southward or toward Kashmir. He exercised a pacifying influence in relations among the Indian, Portuguese, and English rulers.
In 1624 he exchanged his duties with those of Fr. Giuseppe de Castro (from Turin) and became chaplain to the Armenian prince Mirza Zulqarna, a high-ranking Christian official in the service of the Mogul. Fr. C. was buried at Agra in the still extant chapel (Padre Santos Chapel). His unpublished letters reveal a highly sympathetic figure.