Manuel de Almeida

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This article is about the Jesuit and missionary. For other people with this name, see Manuel de Almeida (disambiguation).

Manuel de Almeida (1560—1646) was a native of Viseu, who entered at an early age into the Society of Jesus, and went out as a missionary to India. He is noted to have travelled to Ethiopia and Eritrea and Lake Tana and built a number of churches and monasteries particularly on the small islands of the lake.

In 1622, de Almeida was selected by the general of his order as ambassador to the Emperor of Ethiopia, Susenyos. By that ruler he was well received, but the next Emperor, Fasilides, first exiled him and his fellow Jesuits to Fremona then expelled them in 1632. On his return to Goa, after thirteen years' absence, he was made provincial of his order, and inquisitor. There he died.

De Almeida wrote a history of Ethiopia, Historia de Etiopía a Alta ou Abassia, which drew on his own experiences as well as the writings of previous missionaries like Pedro Páez. Selections from this work were translated into English by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford and published in Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954).