DIONIGI DELLA NATIVITÀ AND REDENTO DELLA CROCE, Blessed. - D. della N., Discalced Carmelite, in the world Pietro Berthelot, b. 12 Dec. 1600 at Honfleur in Normandy. As a youth he devoted himself to commercial navigation and traveled to England, Spain, the East Indies, Java, Malacca, and landed in 1629 in Goa, where he had occasion to win the esteem of the Portuguese authorities, who on 22 Sept. of the same year appointed him first navigator of a powerful fleet sent to defend Malacca, besieged by the king of Aceh. Having obtained a splendid victory, he was confirmed in perpetuity by the viceroy of Goa in the office of first navigator and cosmographer of the Indies.

After such successes he decided to abandon his military career; having entered the Order of Discalced Carmelites, he took his vows in 1636.

On 25 Sept. 1638 he was chosen, on account of his nautical expertise (some of his navigation charts survive, Tabulae maritimae) and his knowledge of the Malay language, to be part of an embassy that the Portuguese were sending to the new king of Aceh on the island of Sumatra. He set out with his lay-brother friar R. della C. The latter was born in Parades in Portugal on 15 March 1598, and his name in the world was Tommaso Rodriguez de Cunha. He served the Portuguese Crown in the Indies and entered the Carmelite Order in Goa, where for his virtues he was held in the reputation of a saint.

Having disembarked at Aceh, they were taken prisoner and killed on 28 Nov. 1638. They were beatified on 10 June 1900. Feast on 29 Nov.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Spiridione di Maria Immacolata, Vita dei beati martiri p. D. della N. e fra' R. della C., carmelitani scalzi, Milan 1900; Ambrogio di S. Teresa, Bio-bibliographia missionaria O. C. D. (1584-1940), Rome 1919, pp. 69-70 ff.; id., Nomenclator missionarium O. C. D., ibid. 1944, pp. 115-16, 322.

Maria Morselotto

@incollection{ec4_dionigi_della_nativita_e_reden, author = {Morseletto, Maria}, title = {Dionigi della Natività e Redento della Croce, besti}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1668--1669}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/dionigi-della-nativita-e-redento-della-croce-besti} }

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Dionigi della Natività and Redento della Croce, Blessed

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