Joseph of Anchieta
José de Anchieta y Díaz de Clavijo, SJ (19 March 1534 – 9 June 1597) was a Spanish missionary to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the first century after its European discovery, Anchieta was one of the founders of São Paulo in 1554 and of Rio de Janeiro in 1565. He is the first playwright, the first grammarian and the first poet born in the Canary Islands, and is considered the father of Brazilian literature.
Anchieta took part in the religious instruction, evangelization, and conversion to the Catholic faith of the Indigenous population. His efforts along with those of another Jesuit missionary, Manuel da Nóbrega, at Indigenous pacification were crucial to the establishment of stable colonial settlements in the colony.
With his book Arte de gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil (1595), Anchieta became the first person to provide an orthography to Old Tupi, the language most commonly spoken along the coast of Brazil.
Patron saint of Catechists; against animal attacks; of those who suffer scoliosis and compatrono of Brazil
In the Martyrology
- June 9 Saint Joseph of Anchieta, Jesuit priest