Anchieta, Jose de

ANCHIETA, ɑ̄n´´shî-ê´tɑ, JOSÉ DE: The apostle of Brazil; b. at La Laguna, Teneriffe, Canary Islands, 1533; d. at Retirygba, Brazil, June 15, 1597. He joined the Jesuits in 1550, and three years later went to Brazil. In 1567 he was ordained priest, and thenceforth lived as missionary in the wild interior, laboring amid great hardships for the conversion of the savages. He became provincial before his death. Both the Indians and the Portuguese believed that he worked miracles. He wrote two catechisms in the native Brazilian tongue, a dictionary of the same, and a grammar (Arte de grammatica da lingoa mais usada na costa do Brasil, Coimbra, 1595), which is the standard work on the subject. A treatise by him in Latin on the natural products of Brazil was published by the Academy of Sciences at Lisbon (1812).

Bibliography: His life has been published in Spanish (Jerez de la Frontera, 1677), in Portuguese (Lisbon, 1672), in Latin (Cologne, 1617), and in English (London, 1849).