Ignacio de Azevedo

Ignacio de Azevedo, BLESSED, b. at Oporto, Portugal, 1528; d. near Palma, one of the Canary Islands, July 15, 1570. He entered the Society of Jesus at Coimbra, December 28, 1548, and became successively rector of the Jesuit college at Lisbon, provincial of Portugal, and rector at Broja. St. Francis Borgia, soon of ter his election as superior general of the Society, appointed Ignacio visitor of the missions of Brazil. After three years of arduous labor in that country he returned to Rome, but asked to be sent back as missionary to Brazil. With thirty-nine companions he started on his voyage, but was seized and martyred by Huguenot pirates near the island of Palma. The forty martyrs were beatified on May 11, 1854.

LEO A. KELLY