At Reritiba in Brazil, Blessed Joseph Anchieta, priest of the Society of Jesus, who, born in the Canary Islands, devoted himself eagerly and fruitfully to missionary works in Brazil for almost the whole course of his life.
Lifespan: 1534–1597
Beatified: 22 June 1980 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: 3 April 2014 by Pope Francis (equipollent canonization)
Memoria liturgica: 9 June
He earned the title of “Apostle of Brazil.”
Born on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands on 19 March 1534, he was the son of Juan López de Anchieta, a descendant of the noble Basque family of Anchieta. Of twelve siblings, Pedro Núñez and Melchior were also ordained to the priesthood alongside him.
Joseph Anchieta lived with his family until the age of fourteen, when he moved to Coimbra in Portugal, where he studied philosophy at the College of Arts attached to the University of Coimbra.
He entered the Society of Jesus in 1551 together with his brother, and became an outstanding Renaissance humanist.
Manuel da Nóbrega, the Jesuit Provincial in Brazil, had requested missionaries for the evangelization of Brazil; Simão Rodrigues, the Provincial of the Order, named José de Anchieta among those designated for the mission.
Anchieta, who suffered from a back ailment, arrived in Brazil on 13 June 1553, not yet twenty years of age, together with other priests. In the course of his missionary work, he founded on the plateau of Piratininga the “College of Saint Paul,” of which he was regent and which became the embryo of the city of São Paulo, together with other priests of the Society of Jesus, on 25 January 1554. In the first years of its existence, this settlement numbered 130 persons, 36 of whom had received baptism.
He devoted himself not only to educating and evangelizing the indigenous peoples, but also to defending them against the abuses of the Portuguese colonists, who not infrequently sought to enslave them and to seize their wives and children.
He struggled against the French who had established themselves in “Antarctic France” in the Bay of Guanabara, and was a companion of Estácio de Sá, whom he attended in his final moments. During this period he served as intermediary in the disputes between the Portuguese and the indigenous peoples united in the “Confederation of the Tamoio,” even offering himself as a hostage to the Tamoio of Iperoig while Father Manuel da Nóbrega went to São Vicente to conclude the peace negotiations between the indigenous peoples and the Portuguese.
During this captivity among the indigenous peoples, he composed the “Poem to the Virgin”: according to tradition, he wrote it in the sand of the beach and committed it to memory, later transcribing it at São Vicente.
In 1566 he was sent to Bahia with the charge of informing Governor Mem de Sá of the progress of the war against the French and of requesting the dispatch of Portuguese reinforcements to Rio de Janeiro. It was at this time that he was ordained a priest, at the age of thirty-two.
In 1569 he founded the village of Iritiba (also known as Reritiba), the present-day city of Anchieta, in the state of Espírito Santo. Father José also directed the College of Rio de Janeiro for three years, from 1570 to 1573.
In 1577 he was appointed Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Brazil, a service he fulfilled until 1587. After withdrawing to Reritiba, he was still called to direct the Jesuit College at Vitória in Espírito Santo. In 1595 he obtained release from these duties and moved definitively to Reritiba, where he died; he was buried at Vitória.