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- Title
From Malabar to Moluccas: the Jesuits and the Province of Malabar (1601-1693).
- Authors
de Lurdes Ponce Edra de Aboim SALES, Maria
- Abstract
The Jesuit Province of Malabar, also known as Province of Cochin or Southern Province was established in 1605, four years after its foundation as a Vice-Province. Its genesis is closely connected with the expansion of the Jesuits throughout Asia and their need to organise and control its missionary network. Acting as an autonomous province sieged in the College of Madre de Deus in Cochin, a Portuguese settlement in Malabar that worked as its coordinating centre until its conquest by the Dutch in 1663. The loss of Cochin and of other Portuguese strongholds in the region led to major redeployments and changes in the Province, namely the shift of its headquarters to Ambalacata, a place in India's west coast. The Jesuit Province of Malabar encompassed a large geographical area, stretching from India's west coast to the Moluccas, characterised by a great political, cultural, social and religious diversity. The Province adjusted and readjusted during the seventeenth century due to a set of internal and external factors, among which we mention: - The lack of human and financial resources for such a large space; - The advancement or regression of the Christian communities due to local and regional powers; - The attractiveness of conversion; - The different levels of accommodation and the development of missionary strategies, which envisaged the recruitment and conservation of the Christian communities. This is, in its ensamble, a complex history in perennial transformation, whose narrative is created to publicise its 'Spiritual Conquest' throughout the Catholic world, taking advantage of its successes and inverting its failures, especially when the Annual Letters after 1663 magnify the growth of the Mission of Madurai.
- Subjects
MALABAR (India); JESUITS; CHRISTIAN communities
- Publication
E-Journal of Portuguese History, 2019, Vol 17, Issue 2, p255
- ISSN
1645-6432
- Publication type
Abstract