Trellado de huma carta que mandou hum homem de Mazcate que he na Arabia ao p. Mestre Gaspar. 1550, Setembro 8, [Mascate].
This abstract describes a 1580 handwritten petition letter composed in Margão (Goa), India, by J. Anzato—a thirty-five-year-old, unmarried layman originally from Portugal who had resided in India for seven years and in Mecca for an unspecified period prior. Addressed to Father Master Gaspar, a Jesui...
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| Format: | Manuscripts |
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1550
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| Online Access: | https://macau-legacy.usj.edu.mo/docs/LHBD6N62/viewer_LHBD6N62.html |
| Summary: | This abstract describes a 1580 handwritten petition letter composed in Margão (Goa), India, by J. Anzato—a thirty-five-year-old, unmarried layman originally from Portugal who had resided in India for seven years and in Mecca for an unspecified period prior. Addressed to Father Master Gaspar, a Jesuit priest travelling in India, the document details Anzato’s spiritual crisis and formal request for admission as a *fruo* (lay associate or affiliated penitent) at the College of St Paul in Goa. It records his six-year resolution to enter religious life, his prior conditional absolution granted by Gaspar in Mecca, his decade-long cohabitation with a woman unconfessed at that time, and his subsequent rigorous daily penitential discipline. Anzato declares his fluency in Arabic, Konkani, Gujarati, and Malayalam; his theological knowledge; his possession of one thousand *pardaus* as sole landed estate and military stipend; and his declaration of no involvement in homicide. He requests Gaspar to write both a formal recommendation to the College’s Superior and a personal letter authorising his admission, outlining procedural requirements for settling his temporal affairs and facilitating his entry into penitential service—even in menial capacities. Dated 7 September 1580, the letter reflects late-sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary practice, colonial ecclesiastical administration in Portuguese India, and individual spiritual negotiation within early modern Catholic reform frameworks. Entry number 175 in catalogue "Jesuítas na Ásia" |
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