Jeronimo Lobo

Background

Jerónimo Lobo was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1595.

Career

In 1621 Lobo was ordered as a missionary to India, and in 1622 he arrived at Goa. With the intention of proceeding to Abyssinia, whose Negus (emperor) Segued had been converted to Roman Catholicism by Pedro Paez, he left India in 1624. He disembarked on the coast of Mombasa, and attempted to reach his destination through the Galla country, but was forced to return.

In 1625 he set out again, accompanied by Mendez, the patriarch of Ethiopia, and eight missionaries. The party landed on the coast of the Red Sea, and Lobo settled in Abyssinia as superintendent of the missions in Tigre. He remained there until death deprived the Catholics of their protector, the emperor Segued. Forced by persecution to leave the kingdom, in 1634 Lobo and his companions fell into the hands of the Turks at Massawa, who sent him to India to procure a ransom for his imprisoned fellow-missionaries. In this he was successful, but could not induce the Portuguese viceroy to send an armament against Abyssinia. Intent upon accomplishing this cherished project, he embarked for Portugal, and after he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, and captured by pirates, arrived at Lisbon. Neither at this city, however, nor at Madrid and Rome, was any countenance given to Lobo's plan. 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, and died there on the 29th of January 1678.

Achievements

• Jerónimo Lobo's most notable work is his memoirs of the years 1622-1640.

Works

More photos

• book

  • P. Hieronymus Lobo's, Eines Portugiesischen Jesuiten, Reise nach Habessinien, und zu den Quellen des Nils (Classic Reprint) (German Edition)

    (Excerpt from P. Hieronymus Lobo's, Eines Portugiesischen ...)

  • A Voyage to Abyssinia

References

• The Itinerário of Jerónimo Lobo (Hakluyt Society, Second Series)