RADA, MARTINO de. - Augustinian missionary, b. at Pamplona on 20 July 1533, d. on the island of Borneo in July 1578.

In 1557 he sailed for Mexico, whence, in 1564, he went on to the Philippines. Elected in 1572 Superior of the religious of those islands, he strove to put an end to the disputes between Spain and Portugal over the dominion of the Philippines, convincing the Portuguese that the Spaniards had not crossed the boundaries imposed on them by Alexander VI. In the company of Fr. Girolamo Marin, in 1575 and 1576 he undertook two voyages to China, and in 1578 he accompanied the expedition of Francesco de Sande to Borneo. He died during the voyage.

Of his writings there remains: Relación de las cosas de reyno de Taibin (Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, cod. 325, ff. 16-31). The author himself, in a letter of 3 June 1576, speaks of some of his lost works. His letters, published only in very small part, are extremely interesting for knowledge of the customs and conditions of the Chinese and the Indians.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: I. Lanteri, Illustriores viri angustinenses. II, Tolentino 1859, pp. 340-41; S. Vela, Ensayo de una biblioteca ibero-americana de la Orden de s. Agustín, VI, Madrid 1922, pp. 444-69; Street, Bibl., IV, p. 311; IX, nn. 210, 241, 247, 737.

Davide Falcioni

@incollection{ec10_rada_martino_de, author = {Falcioni, Davide}, title = {Rada, martino de}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {452}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/rada-martino-de} }

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Rada, Martino de

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