Enciclopedia Cattolica

TORRES, COSME DE

Volume XII · p. 226 · 1954

English translation · Testo originale italiano

TORRES, COSME de. - Gesuita, missionario, n. a Valenza ca. il 1510, m. a Shiki, nell'isola di Kami-Shima nel 1570.
TORRES, COSME de. - Gesuita, missionario, n. a Valenza ca. il 1510, m. a Shiki, nell'isola di Kami-Shima nel 1570.

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

COSME DE TORRES. — Jesuit, missionary, b. at Valencia ca. 1510, d. at Shiki, on the island of Kami-Shima, in 1570.

A priest, he taught grammar at Valencia, Majorca, and Ulldecona; in 1538 he went to Mexico, where he joined the expedition of Rodrigo López de Villalobos, accompanying him to the Philippines and the Moluccas. In 1546 he was at Amboina, where he came into contact with St. Francis Xavier, who in 1548 admitted him into the Society of Jesus and in 1549 took him to Japan. After Xavier’s departure, Torres remained in Yamaguchi to continue the work as superior of the mission from 1552 to 1570. He was the very soul and example of the mission. He increased the number of Christians to 30,000, including many members of the ancient nobility, and built the first church there. Many of his letters remain, some unpublished.

BIBL.: Sommervogel, VIII, 112-13; D. Bartoli, Dell’istoria della Compagnia di Gesù, II, Turin 1825, pp. 88 ff.; III, 1825, pp. 105 ff.; VIII, 1825, pp. 205 ff.; G. Schurhammer, Die Disputationen des p. C. de T. mit den Buddhisten in Yamaguchi im Jahre 1551, Tokyo 1929; id., Epist. S. Fr. Xaverii, II, Rome 1945, V. index. Celestino Testore