Dias, Manoel (3)

Dias, Manoel a third Portuguese missionary of the name, was born at Castello-Branco in 1574. He entered the order of the Jesuits in 1592, and was sent as missionary to China in 1601. He was in succession professor of theology at Macao, vice-provincial, and visitor-general of the Jesuit missions in China and Japan. He traversed nearly the whole of the Chinese empire, and died March 7, 1659, at the age of 85 years, of which 58 had been spent in China. Dias wrote a number of works in the Chinese language, the most important of which is a collection of sermons, in twelve volumes. — Hoefer, Biographie Generale, 14:47.