 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Manuel de Almeida" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Manuel de Almeida | |
|---|---|
| Born | Manuel de Almeida 1580 |
| Died | 1646 (aged 65–66) |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Occupation(s) | Missionary,traveller |
| Known for | Traveller and builder of churches and monasteries inEthiopia andEritrea. |
Manuel de Almeida (sometimesManoel de Almeida, 1580–1646) was a native ofViseu who entered at an early age into theSociety of Jesus and went out as amissionary toIndia. He is noted to have travelled toEthiopia andEritrea andLake Tana and built a number of churches andmonasteries, particularly on the small islands of the lake.[1]
In 1622, Almeida was selected by the general of his order asambassador to theEmperor of Ethiopia,Susenyos. Accompanied by three companions, Almeida leftBassein 28 November of that year forSuakin, and reachedDiu two months later; he was delayed at the port ofDhofar from 18 May 1623 to 16 October due to unfavorable winds. At last Almeida departed for Suakin, reaching it 4 December, where he received a pass from the localPasha to pass through the territories of theOttoman Empire. He then found passage toMassawa, whence he made his way toFremona by way ofDebarwa (where he met the governor ofTigray,RasKeba Krestos), reaching the Catholic base in January 1624.[2]
He was well received by Emperor Susenyos, but his successorFasilides first exiled him and his fellow Jesuits toFremona in 1633. Almeida was selected, along with Manoel Barradas and two other priests, to return toGoa and seek help from the Portuguese authorities for the missionaries; however, he made slow progress and by the time he reached Diu, most of his fellow Jesuits, who had been subsequently expelled from the country, had caught up with him.[3] Upon returning to India, after thirteen years' absence, Almeida was made provincial of his order, and inquisitor. There he died.
Almeida wrote ahistory of Ethiopia,Historia de Etiopía a Alta ou Abassia, which drew on his own experiences as well as thewritings of previous missionaries likePedro Páez. TheHistoria was never published during Almeida's lifetime; but an abridgment and partial revision of Almeida's work byBaltazar Téllez was printed at Coimbra in 1660; an anonymous translation of Tellez's work into English appeared in 1710. Selections fromHistoria work were translated into English by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford and published inSome Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954).
Ethiopia by the Portuguese Jesuit Manoel de. Almeida, which is included in his account Historia de Etiopía a Alta ou Abassia, later published, pp. 331-394
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Rose, Hugh James (1857)."Almeida, Manuel de".A New General Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 1 AA–ANS. London: B. Fellowes et al. p. 356.
