Baltasar Barreira (Balthasar; 26 February 1531, in Lisbon – 4 June 1612) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary to Africa.
Missions
He was in Portuguese Angola, for 13 years, founding a school in Luanda in 1587. Later in life he went to West Africa, reaching the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands in 1604. He then travelled to Bissau the next year, and Sierra Leone; he visited Benin in 1607, Cacheu in 1608. He died on June 4, 1612.
Works
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His literary works consist chiefly of Relations written to the supervisors of the Society of Jesus. He is an eyewitness for matters of religion and slavery.
Accounts of the conversion of pagan tribes and the baptisms of native kings as well as treatises on the manners and customs of the people are the principal subjects of his writings. He recounted in detail the victory of the Portuguese, led by Paulo Dias de Novais, in a battle of 1583.
Notes
- "Joseph Kenny OP: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TROPICAL AFRICA, Chapter 2". Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- Heuijerjans.net
- Elizabeth Allo Isichei, A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (1995), p. 58.
- Joseph J. Williams,, Voodoos and Obeahs pp. 35-6.
- George E. Brooks, Eurafricans in Western Africa (2003), p. 73.
References
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Balthasar Barreira". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
- Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, I, 918.
- 1531 births
- 1612 deaths
- Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries
- Clergy from Lisbon
- 16th-century Portuguese Jesuits
- 17th-century Portuguese Jesuits
- Jesuit missionaries
- Roman Catholic missionaries in Cape Verde
- Roman Catholic missionaries in Benin
- Roman Catholic missionaries in Guinea-Bissau
- Roman Catholic missionaries in Sierra Leone