FERNANDEZ, ANTONIO. - Jesuit, missionary, born in Lisbon in 1569, died in Goa on Nov. 12, 1642. In 1601 he departed for India; whence, in 1604, he went to the mission of Ethiopia, remaining there for thirty years amidst toil and danger, but also consolations. Indeed, he succeeded in converting to the faith the viceroy of
(fot. Gab. fot. nac.) FERMO, ARCIDIOCESI di - Facciata della Cattedrale (sec. XIII-XIV), Fermo.
Already as early as 1613 F. had been sent by the Emperor, as his legate, with the ambassador Fecur Egzi, to the Pope and to King Philip III; but he had fallen a prisoner and, having been freed after much suffering, had had to retrace his steps. He was also superior of the entire mission and vicar general of Patriarch Alfonso Mendez. Under the successor of Susennyos, Seltan Seghed II (Fasiladas), when persecution broke out, he had to take the path of exile with the patriarch and retired to Goa.
He translated the liturgical books of the Roman Church into the Ethiopian language, and composed other books in refutation of the errors of the Schismatic clergy and on Our Lady. His only work printed in the Ethiopian characters, expressly sent by Urban VIII to Patriarch Mendez, is Magnef Assetat, Flagellum mandaziorum, sive Tractatus de erroribus Aethiopiae sermone chaldoso (Goa 1642).