DIMAS della CROCE. - In the world Giacinto Tonelli, Carmelite missionary. Born on 13 Nov. 1577 at Monteleone (Spoleto), he professed at Rome on 25 March 1610. From 1616 he was in the missions of Persia, carrying out his work especially on behalf of the Armenians, scattered in great numbers around Isfahân; he induced the patriarch of the Armenians, Mosè, to present to Urbano VIII a profession of faith and submission; he did likewise with the Chaldeans.
In 1622, after visiting all the Armenian villages, whose faith was in danger, he established among them a kind of popular mission, thereby succeeding in reconciling many schismatics, converting apostates, and encouraging the wavering. He spent large sums, offered to the Persian king, to free the Armenians from Persian vexations. Appointed bishop of Bagdad in 1634, he refused. He died on 23 Dec. 1639 in his convent at Isfahân.