NOBREGA, MANUEL DA - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. VIII, p. 1114

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

NOBREGA, MANUEL da. – Jesuit missionary, founder of the missions in Brazil, b. in southern Portugal on 18 Oct. 1517, d. at Rio de Janeiro on 18 Oct. 1570.

He entered the Order already a priest, after studies at Salamanca and Coimbra (1544), and in 1549 was sent by St Ignatius, with five companions, to Brazil. First superior (1550), then vice-provincial (1551), and later provincial (1553–59), he devoted himself to carrying out the broad designs he had conceived for the moral uplift of the colony and of the various tribes of pagan Indians. He assisted and cooperated in the founding of the city of Salvador de Bahia, contributed effectively to the founding of Rio de Janeiro, and founded São Paulo. He traversed all the districts of Brazil at that time, from Pernambuco to São Vicente, promoting catechesis, the freedom of the Indians, and the instruction and education of children. In 1567 he founded the College of Rio de Janeiro and became its first rector. Elected provincial a second time, he did not take possession of the office, for death overtook him.

BIBL.: His letters, which are very interesting, were partly published in the *Lettere amme del tempo*; they are now collected in *Cartas jesuíticas*, I, *Cartas do Brasil do p. M. N.* (1549–60), Rio de Janeiro 1886; new ed., ibid. 1931; and in S. Leite, *Novas cartas jesuíticas*, São Paulo 1949. Studies: J. Mariz de Morais, *N. o primiero Jesuista do Brasil*, Rio de Janeiro 1940; J. V. JACOBS, LUCA, *N. of Brazil*, in *Mid-America*, 24 (1942), pp. 151–87; S. Leite, *Hist. da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil*, I–III, Rio de Janeiro 1938–43, passim; IX, ibid. 1949, pp. 3–13.