Luiz de Azevedo

Luiz de Azevedo

An Ethiopic missionary and scholar, born, according to probable narration of Franco (Imogem da Vertude em o Noviciado de Coimbra, 359-61), at Carrezedo Montenegro, in the Diocese of Braga, in Portugal, in 1573; died in Ethiopia in 1634. He became a Jesuit in 1588, and sailed for the Indies in 1592. In 1605 he began his missionary labours in Ethiopia, where he remained until his death. Azevedo was called the Apostle Agarus, and is justly reckoned among the most illustrious of the Doctors of the Church of Ethiopia, to which he reclaimed many schismatics. He translated into Chaldaic the commentaries of Father Toletus on the Epitles of St. Paul to the Romans and those of Francis Ribera on the Epitle of St. Paul to the Hebrews; the "Canonical Hours", the "Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary", and other works. He is the author of a grammer of Ethiopic language, and translated into the same tongue the New Testament, a Portughese catechism, instructions on the Apostle's Creed, and other books of the same nature.

JOSEPH M. WOODS