José de Anchieta

On January 25, 1554, Anchieta was among the founders of a college dedicated to the Apostle Paul, established on the Piratininga plateau: this nucleus became the city of São Paulo. He worked for a long time alongside the provincial Manuel da Nóbrega, of whom he was for a time the secretary, and participated in the consolidation of Jesuit settlements, including Rio de Janeiro. Gifted with languages, he learned Tupi and wrote the "Arte de gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil," the first printed grammar of this indigenous language, which became a reference instrument for missionaries. A poet and playwright, he composed with ease verses in Latin, Portuguese, Castilian, and Tupi, as well as plays for catechetical purposes. In 1563, during the conflict between the Portuguese colonists and the Tamoio confederation, Anchieta and Nóbrega voluntarily became hostages at the village of Iperoig (today Ubatuba) to negotiate peace; his mastery of Tupi was decisive there. Tradition reports that he composed his great Latin Marian poem there from memory, for lack of paper. He is considered one of the fathers of Brazilian literature.

Anchieta's existence was marked by a constant dedication to the service of the indigenous populations, whom he sought to protect from the abuses of colonization while instructing them in the Christian faith. His spirituality, inherited from Ignatius of Loyola, united missionary action with a life of intense prayer and deep Marian devotion, as evidenced by his Latin poem "De Beata Virgine Dei Matre Maria," thousands of verses long, which tradition says was first traced in the sand during his captivity in Iperoig in 1563. Enduring with patience a precarious state of health and the rigors of a difficult climate, he traveled tirelessly through indigenous villages to catechize, baptize, and care for the people. His contemporaries attributed to him a reputation as a miracle worker and a life of mortification. This fame of holiness, attested to upon his death in 1597 and maintained by a continuous popular cult in Brazil, founded the cause that led, more than three centuries later, to his beatification and subsequent canonization.

José de Anchieta was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 22, 1980, during a Roman celebration in which several blesseds were proclaimed. His canonization took place on April 3, 2014: Pope Francis inscribed him in the catalogue of saints by an equipollent (or equivalent) canonization, a procedure reserved for figures benefiting from an ancient, continuous, and widely spread cult, and which dispenses with the formal recognition of a new miracle after beatification. His holiness was thus recognized on the basis of the historical reputation of his virtues and the popular devotion with which he was surrounded, particularly in Brazil. His liturgical memorial is fixed on June 9, the anniversary of his death. The same decree of April 3, 2014, inscribed other long-honored figures in the catalogue of saints by equipollence.

Anchieta's legacy is both religious and cultural. Nicknamed the "Apostle of Brazil," he is venerated as one of the founders of the Church in that country and is counted among the tutelary figures of São Paulo, whose core he helped found in 1554. His linguistic and literary work—Tupi grammar, poems, catechetical plays, and the Latin epic poem "De Gestis Mendi de Saa," considered the first epic dedicated to the New World—earns him the reputation of being one of the fathers of Brazilian literature. His name is borne by the municipality of Anchieta, in Espírito Santo, the place of his death, as well as by numerous institutions, schools, and Jesuit establishments in Brazil. A member of the Society of Jesus, he remains a major reference for Ignatian spirituality and the missionary history of South America. His feast day is celebrated on June 9.