Inácio de Azevedo
| Blessed Inácio de Azevedo | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Jesuit missionary and martyr | |
| Born | 1527 Porto, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died |
July 15, 1570 (aged 49–50) Atlantic Ocean, near the Canary islands |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 11 May 1854 by Pope Pius IX |
| Feast | 17 July |
Blessed Inácio de Azevedo (1527–1570) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary.
His full name was Inácio de Azevedo d'Athayde e Abreu Malafaya and he was born in Porto from a wealthy family, being the eldest son of Dom Manuel de Azevedo and Dona Francisca de Abreu. One of his brothers, Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo, was Viceroy of Portuguese India from 1612 to 1617.
He was educated at the Portuguese court of King John III and at the age of 18 he became administrator of his family's estate. However, after attending the sermons and speeches of Jesuit priest Francisco Estrada he decided to renounce all his possessions, including the feudal honra of Barbosa, in northern Portugal (Entre Douro e Minho).
In 1548 he made an irrevocable choice of a religious life and entered the Society of Jesus where he was finally ordained in 1553. In 1565 Saint Francis Borgia charged him with full powers for the inspection of the Jesuit missions in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, a task that took him nearly 3 years to accomplish. He arrived in Bahia in August, 1566 and he proceeded to visit all the Jesuit missions in Brazil. He nominated Father Manuel da Nóbrega Provincial for Brazil and with Nóbrega and Blessed José de Anchieta he visited the missions in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro whose foundations were then being laid. He thus spent two years of his life in Brazil.
In October 1568 he was back in Lisbon and in May 1569 he proceeded to Rome to report to Pope Pius V and Saint Francis Borgia. In his final report, Inácio de Azevedo asked for more people to be sent to the missions and Saint Francis Borgia thus ordered him to recruit new elements for the Jesuits in Brazil. Then, after several months of intense preparations that included meetings with King Sebastian I of Portugal, Azevedo and his companions finally left Portugal for Brazil on the merchant vessel Santiago on 5 June 1570, while another group of more than 20 companions boarded the military fleet of the newly appointed Governor General of Brazil.
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