Goes, Bento de - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VI, p. 540

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

GOES, BENTO de. — Jesuit, missionary, and explorer, born at Villa Franca do Campo, on the island of S. Michele (Azores), died at Suchow (China) on 11 April 1607. A soldier in India, he entered the Society of Jesus for the first time as a coadjutor brother in 1584, following a remarkable conversion; but, having left it because he intended to undertake the priesthood, he was readmitted to the same office in 1588. Assigned to the mission at the court of the Great Mogul, Akbar, he won the latter’s sympathy to such an extent that Akbar sent him as an ambassador of peace to Goa, to the viceroy of the Indies (1601). Upon his return, it was decided that he should explore Cataio, of which Marco Polo and ancient missionaries had spoken, in order to ascertain whether or not it corresponded to China, and to discover the nuclei and groups of Christians who were said to have existed there for some time with their priests, but without any communication with Rome.

Departing from Agra on 29 October 1602, disguised as an Armenian merchant and under the name of Abdullah Isai, at the head of a large caravan, he reached Lahore, where he dismissed the caravan and chose only a few companions, among them the faithful Isaac, an Armenian. He resumed his journey, one of the most courageous and difficult in the history of exploration, and, passing through Cabul, Ciaricar, Iarcand, Casgar, the Pamir, Cialin, and Turfar, finally reached Suchow, in China, around 22 December 1605, after a journey of approximately 4,000 km. Fr. Matteo Ricci, who had received his letters, sent the Christian Chinese G. Fernandes or Ciommili to meet him; but the latter found him almost dying. G. in fact died shortly afterward, not only from the hardships and privations he had endured, but also, it seems, from poison administered to him by the Muslims.

G. had kept a careful journal of his journey, but Isaac was unable to wrest from the avaricious Muslims anything but a few sheets, which he later delivered, together with Fernandes, to Fr. Ricci in Pekino. Ricci used them to write several chapters (cf. bk. V, chaps. 12–14) of his Commentari della Cina.

G.’s merits are acknowledged by the best geographers; the Geographical Society of Lisbon wished to commemorate the third centenary of his death with a special publication; and on the same occasion his fellow citizens of Villa Franca do Campo erected a monument to him, representing him

in the features and dress of an Arab merchant, as he was when he departed from Agra.

BIBL.: Sommervogel, III, cols. 1529–30; H. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, II, London 1866, pp. 529–96; new ed. edited by H. Cordier, IV, there 1916, pp. 169–259; J. Brucker, Benoit de Goes (1603-1607), in Etudes, 1879, III, pp. 589–612, 678–95; Various authors, IV Centenario de Bento de Goes, 1607-1907, Homenagem de Sociedade de Geogr. de Lisboa, Lisbon 1907; M. Ricci, I commentari della Cina, I, V, chaps. 12–14, ed. P. Tacchi Venturi, Opere storiche del p. M. Ricci, I, Macerata 1911, pp. 526–58 (cf. also II, Lettere, there 1913, pp. 346–57), ed. P. d’Elia, Fonti Riccione, Storia delle introduzioni del Cristianesimo in Cina, II, Rome 1940, pp. 301–445; C. Wessel, Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia (1603-1721), The Hague 1924, pp. 1–42; E. Maclahan, The Jesuits and the Great Magal, London 1932, pp. 50–58, 340–72; H. Bernard, Le frere Bento de Goes chez les Musulmans de la Haute Asie (1603-17), Tientsin 1934.

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