Henrique Henriques
| Henrique Henriques | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1520 Vila Viçosa, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died | 1600 (aged 80) Punnaikayal |
| Occupation | Jesuit priest and missionary |
Henrique Henriques (also known as Anrique Anriquez) (1520–1600) was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and missionary who spent most of his life in missionary activities in South India. After his initial years in Goa he moved to Tamil Nadu where he mastered Tamil and wrote several books including a dictionary. He is considered to be the first European Tamil scholar.
He strongly believed that books of religious doctrines should be in local languages and to this end he wrote books in Tamil. His efforts made Tamil the first non-European language to be printed in moveable type. Hence he is sometimes called The Father of the Tamil Press. After his death his mortal remains were buried in Our Lady of Snows Basilica in Tuticorin, India.
Henriques was born in 1520 in Vila Viçosa, Portugal. He joined the Franciscan order but had to leave as he was of Jewish ancestry. He later studied Canon Law at the University of Coimbra till 1545. He entered the newly founded Society of Jesus on 7 October 1545, in Coimbra (Portugal) and departed for India in 1546.
Henriques initially lived in Goa until 1557 and then moved to the Pearl Fishery Coast or Tuticorin, under orders of St. Francis Xavier, where he worked as a missionary from 1547 to 1549. In 1549, after the death of Antonio Criminali, he was elected superior of this mission, a post which he held till 1576. His progress in the development of the community and his concerns about the problems in the mission are explicit from the regular reports he wrote to his Superior General.
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