A Jesuit missionary to Brazil, b. 18 September or 6 December,
1689, at Menaggio, in Italy ; d. 21 September, 1761, at Lisbon.
He entered the Jesuit order at Genoa in 1711. He set out from
Lisbon in 1721 and arrived on the Island of Maranhào towards the
end of the same year. Thence he proceeded to Brazil, where for
twenty-eight years he underwent numerous hardships in the
Christianization of the natives. In 1749 he was sent to Lisbon,
where he was received with great honours by the aged King John
V. In 1751 he returned to Brazil, but was recalled to Lisbon in
1753 upon the request of the queen dowager, Marianna of Austria,
mother of Joseph, who had succeeded to the throne upon the death
of his father, John V. The great influence which he exerted at
the Court of Lisbon was a thorn in the side of Pombal, the prime
minister. By intrigues and calumnies he induced the young king,
Joseph I, to banish Malagrida to Setubal (November, 1756) and to
remove all the Jesuits from the Court. An attempt upon the life
of the r