Nóbrega, Manuel da (1517–1570)

Manuel da Nóbrega (b. 18 October 1517; d. 18 October 1570), Jesuit missionary. Manuel da Nóbrega was the leader of the first Jesuit mission to Brazil in 1549. Born in Minho in 1517 to a noble Portuguese family, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1544, after being educated at the universities of Salamanca and Coimbra. He spent more than twenty years in Brazil, dedicating his life to founding missions among the Indians and schools for the children of the white population.

Arriving in Brazil on the fleet carrying the first governor, Nóbrega headed a group of six Jesuit missionaries. He concentrated on learning the Indian languages and gathering small tribes into segregated missions, or aldeias, where they were converted and protected from enslavement. In 1553 Nóbrega was selected as the first provincial general of the Jesuits in Brazil. In 1554, in the captaincy of São Vicente, Nóbrega helped to found a mission and colégio near the village of Piratininga, modern São Paulo.

Nóbrega's greatest accomplishment was the founding of local schools, missions, and the College of São Paulo. In 1560, after Nóbrega was relieved of his duties as provincial general, he helped the Portuguese regain control of Rio de Janeiro by securing valuable Indian allies to expel the French pirates from Guanabara Bay. In 1567, in the newly established city of Rio de Janeiro, he founded another Jesuit colégio to educate the sons of Indian chiefs and white settlers. Nóbrega served as rector of the colégio until his death.

Nóbrega's letters and his two works, Informação das Terras do Brasil (Information about Brazil [1550]) and Diálogo sobre a Converso do Gentio (Dialogue about the Conversion of the Heathen [1556])—the first true literary works on Brazil—give glowing descriptions of the natural beauty of the New World, the "simplicity" of the Indians, and their "receptivity" to Christianity. As the first superior of the Jesuits in Brazil, he supervised the missionary activities in the south of Brazil and throughout the colony. A good diplomat and politician as well as an organizer of missions and schools, he left colonial Brazil a rich legacy.

See alsoMissions: Brazil .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Serafim Leite, História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil, 10 vols. (1938–1950), and Novas páginas da história do Brasil (1965).

Helio Vianna, História do Brasil colonial (1975).

John Hemming, Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians, 1500–1760 (1978).

Additional Bibliography

Mariz de Moraes, José. Nóbrega: O primeiro jesuita do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Relume Dumará, 2000.

Souza, Miguel Augusto Gonçalves de. O descobrimento e a colonização portuguesa no Brasil. Belo Horizonte: Editora Itatiaia, 2000.

                                             Patricia Mulvey