MERCURIAN, EBERHARD. - Fourth General of the Society of Jesus, b. at Marcour (Belgium) in 1514, d. at Rome on 1 August 1580. A Jesuit in 1548, he was rector of the College of Perugia, provincial of Flanders, assistant for Germany, and was elected General on 23 April 1573.

He zealously fostered the interior development of the Order, publishing the "Summary" of the Ignatian Constitutions and providing a body of "Rules" common to all and particular to the various offices. Favored by Gregory XIII, he saw the English Seminary entrusted to him in Rome and the Roman and German Colleges enlarged; he initiated and promoted many missions among heretics and infidels in England, Poland, Transylvania, Sweden and Russia; among the Maronites of Lebanon, in India, China, Japan, where he sent as many as ninety-three men, among them A. Valignano, M. Ricci, and the blessed R. Aquaviva. He gave energetic impetus to extensive apostolic missions in Catholic Europe (Marquisate of Saluzzo, Dalmatia, Greece and the islands of the archipelago). At his death the Order numbered 21 provinces and 5000 members.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: In addition to the recent and critical histories of the Society of Jesus by A. Astrain, H. Fouqueray, B. Duhr, F. Rodriguez, see in particular: O. Manare, De vita et moribus Everardi Mercuriani, Brussels 1882; T. Severin, Un grand belge, M., curé ardennais, général des Jésuites, Liège 1946 (cf. Arch. hist. S. I., 17 [1947], pp. 208-209).

@incollection{ec8_mercurian_eberhard, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Mercurian, eberhard}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {716--717}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mercurian-eberhard} }

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Mercurian, Eberhard

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