Jeronimo Lobo

Jerónimo Lobo (1593 - 29 January, 1678) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary.

Related Topics:
1593 - 29 January - 1678 - Portuguese - Jesuit - Missionary

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He was born in Lisbon the third of at least five sons and six duaghters to Francisco Lobo, the governor of Cape Verde, and Dona Maria Brandão de Vasconcelos. He entered the Order of Jesus at the age of 14. In 1621 he was ordered as a missionary to India, and after surviving an attack on the fleet carrying him by British and Dutch ships off Mozambique, he arrived at Goa in December 1622.

Related Topics:
Lisbon - Cape Verde - 1621 - India - Mozambique - Goa

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With the intention of proceeding to Ethiopia, whose Negus negust Sissinios had been converted to Roman Catholicism by Pedro Páez, he left India in 1624. He struggled to overcome the difficulty that Ethiopia controlled none of the coastline, first disembarking at Pate and attempted to reach his destination along the Jubba River through country controlled by the Oromo, but was forced to return. Then in 1625 he set out again, accompanied by Alfonso Mendez, the Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia, and eight missionaries, landing at Bailul, a port on the coast of the Red Sea controlled by the king of the Afars. After a month spent crossing the desert into the Ethiopian highlands, the party reached Fremona, where Lobo assumed the responsibilities of superintendent of the missions in Tigray.

Related Topics:
Ethiopia - Negus negust - Sissinios - Roman Catholicism - Pedro Páez - 1624 - Pate - Jubba River - Oromo - 1625 - Alfonso Mendez - Patriarch - Bailul - Red Sea - Afars - Ethiopian highlands - Fremona - Tigray

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His other activities included recovering the remains of Cristóvão da Gama, who had been captured and executed by Ahmed Gragn in 1542, and serving as a missionary to the southwest of Lake Tana, where he visited the source of the Blue Nile.

Related Topics:
Cristóvão da Gama - Ahmed Gragn - 1542 - Lake Tana - Blue Nile

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The death of Emperor Sissinios (1632) deprived the Catholics of their protector; his successor, Fasilidos, first confined them once again at Fremona, then in 1634 Lobo and his companions were exiled from Ethiopia, who were exposed to robbery, assaults and other indignities by the local population before reaching the Ottoman Naib at Massawa. He sent them to his superior at Suakin, where the Pasha forced the party to pay a ransom before they could proceed to India. Despite settling for a ransom of 4300 patacas (which he borrowed from local Hindu merchants), at the last moment the Pasha insisted on keeping Patriarch Mendez and three other senior priests for further money.

Related Topics:
1632 - Fasilidos - 1634 - Ottoman - Naib - Massawa - Suakin - Pasha - Pataca

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Once Lobo reached Diu, he left for Goa by canoe, arriving at the provincial capital 8 December, 1634. There he attempted to convince viceroy Miguel de Noronha, conde de Linhares to send an armament to the Red Sea to capture Suakin and Massawa, free the patriarch by force, and restore Catholicism to Ethiopia. Although the Viceroy was willing to make a punitive expedition against Suakin to free the Patriarch, he did not want to overextend Portuguese forces and garrison either port. Unwilling to settle for just freeing the patriarch, Lobo embarked for Portugal, and after he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, then captured by pirates, he arrived at Lisbon. Neither at this city, however, nor at Madrid and Rome, was any approval given to Lobo's plan.

Related Topics:
Diu - 8 December - 1634 - Viceroy - Miguel de Noronha, conde de Linhares - Natal - Madrid - Rome

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He accordingly returned to India in 1640, and was elected rector, and afterwards provincial, of the Jesuits at Goa. After some years he returned to his native city, where he died.

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