Luiz de Azevedo

Luiz de Azevedo (born [according to probable narration of Franco (Imogem da Vertude em o Noviciado de Coimbra, 359-61)] at Carrezedo Montenegro, in the Diocese of Braga, in Portugal, in 1573; died in Ethiopia in 1634) was a Portuguese Jesuit scholar and missionary.

Life

He became a Jesuit in 1588, and sailed for the Indies in 1592. In 1605 he began his missionary lwork in Ethiopia, where he remained until his death. Azevedo was called the Apostle Agarus.

Works

He translated into Chaldaic the commentaries of Father Toletus on the "Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans" and those of Francis Ribera on the "Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews"; the "Canonical Hours", the "Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary", and other works. He is the author of a grammar of the Ethiopic language, and translated into the same tongue the New Testament, a Portuguese catechism, instructions on the Apostle's Creed, and other books of the same nature. Azevedo concentrated on the Ge'ez language, rather than Amharic, since Ge'ez was the language of literacy. [Leonardo Cohen, "The Jesuit Missionary as Translator (1603-1632)" pp. 16-17, Verena Böll (editor), "Ethiopia And the Missions" (2005)]

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