DE NOBILI, ROBERTO. - Jesuit, missionary, b. at Montepulciano (Siena) in Sept. 1577; d. at Mallapur (Madras) on 16 Jan. 1656. Having arrived in India in 1605, he immediately went to Madura, where he carried out his distinctive apostolate for forty years.
In order to reach and convert the caste of the Brahmans, who shunned missionaries in contact with the lower castes, he decided to become a « saniassi », that is, to embrace their life, usages, and customs, in all that did not conflict with Christianity. From that time conversions began; not many in number, but the prejudice that Christianity was a religion only of the Paria was dispelled. And just as D. N. adapted himself to the castes, so he endeavoured to have other missionaries arise (called Pandāraswami) devoted exclusively to the lower castes, whom he had been unable to approach except secretly. This method gave rise to controversies and hostility on the part of other religious, including Jesuits, who did not spare him the accusation of heresy and fetishism (v. MALABARICI); indeed, he received a condemnation from Rome. After more accurate information had been obtained, however, Card. R. Bellarmino recognized the orthodoxy of the method and obtained from Gregory XV the apostolic constitution Romanae Sedis antistes, of 31 Jan. 1623, which allowed D. N. to continue in his manner of proceeding.
Highly skilled in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu, he composed in these languages twenty works on philosophical and theological subjects, some also in verse.