IGNATIUS OF JESUS (CARLO LEONELLI). - Carmelite missionary. He was born in Sorbologno (Pesaro, Italy) in 1596. Having earned degrees in both civil and canon law, he entered the Discalced Carmelites in the Roman province and professed on 27 February 1626 at Montecompatri. From 1629 he was a missionary in Isfahan (Persia), and from 1634 in Shiraz. Transferred in 1641 to Basra as superior of that convent, he labored extensively for the conversion of the Mandaeans, also known as pseudo-Sabaeans and commonly called “Christians of St John the Baptist,” regarding whose cult he sent to Rome, for the knowledge of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, an interesting illustrated document, the so-called Divan Mandaeorum, with his own marginal annotations and explanations (Vatican Library, Borgian codex, Syriac 175). Transferred in 1656 to the mission in Syria, he worked in Tripoli and on Mount Lebanon until 1664, when he was recalled to Rome, where he died on 21 February 1667.
Works remaining from him include: Narratio originis, rituum, et errorum Christianorum S. Joannis, with a refutation of the errors of this people (Rome 1652); Grammatica linguae Persicae (ibid. 1661); Dictionarium latino-Persicum (ms., Vatican Library, Borgia collection); Serinium duarum linguarum orientalium, i.e. Persicae et Arabicae (ms., Vittorio Emanuele Library, Rome); Doctrina Christiana by H.E. Cardinal Bellarmine translated into Persian (ms., Vittorio Emanuele Library, Rome).