Nau, Michel

Nau, Michel a French missionary, was born at Paris in 1631, of distinguished, noble parentage. He joined the Jesuits in 1656, and his superiors, after having intrusted to him the direction of the studies of the two princes De Longueville, appointed him to the missions in the East. He travelled over Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, and Armenia, where his zeal, and the conversions that he wrought, more than once excited the Mussulmans against him. Exhausted in strength, he returned to France in 1682, and died at Paris March 8, 1683. We have of his works, Voyage nouveau de la Terre Sainte, enrichi de plusieurs remarques servant a l'intelligence de la Sainte Ecriture (Paris, 1679 and 1702, 12mo; a book at the same time curious, edifying, and useful): — Ecclesiae Romanae Graeceque vera effigies et consensus, ex vatiis tum recentibus, turn antiquis monumentis. Accessit religio Christiana contra Alcoranum defensa (Paris, 1680, 4to) :

— L'Etat present de la religion Mahometane (Paris, 1681, 1685, 1687, 2 volumes, 12mo), an extended translation of the preceding Latin book. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.