Manuel da Nóbrega

Manuel da Nóbrega (archaic orthography Manoel da Nóbrega) was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil. Together with José de Anchieta, he was very influential in the early History of Brazil, having participated in the founding of several cities, such as Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and many Jesuit Colleges and seminars.

Early life

Nóbrega was born in October 18, 1517, in Entre-Douro-e-Minho, Portugal, to an important family (his father was Baltasar da Nóbrega, a prominent judge of Justice). He studied Humanities at Oporto and Salamanca, Spain and at the University of Coimbra, where he obtained his baccalaureate in Canon law and philosophy, in 1541. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1544 and after being ordained, carried out pastoral work in the regions of Minho and Beira.

Missionary in Brazil

In 1549, he joined the naval fleet of the first Portuguese Governor-General Tomé de Sousa (1502-1579), following a request by King D. João III to the Society of Jesus, in order to start the missionary work of converting the Amerindians (who were heathen in the eyes of the Catholic Church); of building churches and religious seminars, and of educating the colonists (who were, in the beginning, mostly degredados, or common criminals, political and religious prisoners expelled from Portugal as a sentence for their crimes).

Nóbrega arrived in the captaincy of Bahia on March 29, 1549, accompanied by five other Jesuits. The Governor-General first act was to found the colonial capital city of Salvador (The Savior, in Portuguese) and to celebrate its first mass on 1549.

Nóbrega and his colleagues tried to fulfill their mission but faced many difficulties, because the colonists mistreated and tried to enslave the Indians. He soon was fiercely engaged in the defense of the Indians, a posture which lead to serious clashes with inhabitants and authorities of the new colony, alike, including the first Governor-General and the one who succeeded him, Duarte da Costa.

In order to gain authority in his fight against the colonists, Nóbrega asks the King to establish an episcopacy in Brazil. This was granted on February 25, 1551, and the first Bishop of Brazil, D. Pero Fernandes Sardinha took office on June 22 1552, By then, Nóbrega, an efficient entrepreneur, had already created the Jesuit College of Salvador. Nóbrega was then nominated the first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in the New World, a post which he held until 1559. Unfortunately, Don Sardinha was killed and eaten by hostile Indians after a shipwreck, changing Nóbrega's mind in relation to the Indian mission.

Sensing the difficulties of converting adult Indians to Christianity, Nóbrega determined that the Jesuit's efforts should concentrate on the teaching of children, which were more pliable, and they started to create elementary schools for teaching Portuguese and Latin, basic literacy and religion. The Jesuits discovered that singing was a very effective way of winning the attention of the souls of their new bethren, and so Nóbrega was one of the pioneers in using music in education. To help in the evangelization of children, Nóbrega had the idea of bringing in 1550 seven orphan children to Brazil and making them learn Tupi-guarani, the language of the Indians, so that they would be bilingual and act as translators. These children would often go with the Jesuits on foot to faraway places and were protected and cherished by the Indians. Several of them became Jesuit priests, too.

In 1552, Nóbrega accompanied again Tomé de Sousa to the captaincy of São Vicente, in the present-day Southern state of São Paulo. There, he was joined by another group of Jesuits, who had arrived with José de Anchieta, then a young novice, who travelled with Mem de Sá, the third Governor-General sent by the Crown. Nóbrega determined as the new mission of this small band of missionaries to found villages (aldeamento) in the high plateau just above the coastline, or order to better pursue their work of catechesis and education of the Indians. Thus, in January 25, 1554, Nóbrega and Anchieta celebrated the first mass in the new and modest Jesuit College of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, in honor of Saint Paul's day of conversion to Christianity. Five centuries later, this was to become São Paulo, of the largest metropolis in the world, with 12 million inhabitants.

War and Expansion

But the exploitation and massacres of Indian villages by the Portuguese colonists continued despite the pacification efforts of Nóbrega. The Tamoio and Tupininquim tribes, who lived along the Brazilian coast from the present-day states of Espírito Santo to Paraná were naturally the most affected ones. Rebelling, they formed a warring tribal alliance, which became the Tamoio Confederation (Confederação dos Tamoios, in Portuguese) and started attacks on the villages founded by the colonists. São Paulo was attacked several times, but resisted. Hard pressed, Nóbrega tried to make a peace treatise with the Confederation, sensing that all their effort and the Portuguese colonization was in great danger. Under considerable duress and several threats of being killed and eaten by the Indians, he and Anchieta stayed for a time in Iperoig (present-day Ubatuba in the Northern cost of São Paulo), in conference with the tribal chieftains, until Nóbrega was able to achieve temporary peace. Anchieta's command of Língua Geral, the idiom generally spoken by the Indians (and who was compiling a vocabulary and a grammar) was extremely useful to Nóbrega, who had not such ability.

The arrival of a French invasion force in 1555, in the Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro (the so called France Antarctique episode), however, tipped the balance again, since the Indians saw an opportunity to rally the Frenchmen's help to vanquish the hated Portuguese. Thus, Nóbrega had no alternative other than bless and support the punitive expeditions sent by the third Governor-General, Mem de Sá, in 1560 and by his nephew, Estácio de Sá, in 1565. The French colonists were defeated and definitely expelled and their Indian allies were reduced to submission.

After the expulsion of the French invaders, Father Manuel da Nóbrega staid in Rio and founded a new Jesuit College in the city, the College of Saint Vincent, and was nominated its Rector (Dean). In 1570 he was again nominated Brazilian Provincial of the Jesuit Order, but he died before taking office, in October 18, 1570, in the very day he was completing 53 years of age. Seven years later, the Jesuit Provincialship of Brazil was accepted by Anchieta, his great pupil and friend.

See also

• São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga
• Colonial Brazil
• Portuguese colonization of the Americas
• José de Anchieta
• France Antarctique

Online editions

• Diálogo sobre a Conversão do gentio at MetaLibri Digital Library