LOYOLA, MARTÍN IGNACIO. - Franciscan, missionary, d. at Buenos Aires in 1612. Related to the family of s. Ignazio di L., he entered the Franciscan province of Santiago, later passing to that of the Discalced Reform of S. Giuseppe.
In 1581 he went to the Philippines, then to China, where he suffered imprisonment and ill-treatment; he was then compelled to return to Macao, where he was made superior of the Franciscan Custody of Malacca (1583); but because of Portuguese opposition he had to return to his homeland. In Rome he obtained from the Pontiff various privileges and permission to return to China. He did in fact return to Malacca (1585) and to Macao (1586). At Canton he was again imprisoned, and had to leave the East forever in 1588. From Spain he departed in 1594 for South America. In 1601 he was elected bishop of Ascension, where in 1603 he convened a synod. In 1605 he was transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Las Charcas.
BIRL.: Fr. d. S. Inés, Crónica de la provincia di S. Gregorio, I, Manila 1892, pp. 260-71; A. Van de Wyngaert, Sinica Franciscana, II, Quaracchi 1933, pp. 185-213 (published there are his Itinerario and a letter); Streit, Bibl., II, pp. 317, 378 (nos. 1348, 1373). Alberto Ghinato