Pedro Páez

Spanish priest

Also known as: Pedro Páez Xaramillo, Pero Páez

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History

Pedro Páez (born 1564, Olmedo, Spain—died May 20, 1622, Gorgora, Ethiopia) was a learned Jesuit priest who, in the tradition of Frumentius—founder of the Ethiopian church—went as a missionary to Ethiopia, where he became known as the second apostle of Ethiopia.

Páez entered the Society of Jesus in 1582 and sailed for Goa, in India, in 1588. En route to Ethiopia (1589) he was captured by Turkish pirates and enslaved until 1596, when he returned to Goa. He finally reached Ethiopia in 1603. There he learned two of the main languages, translated a catechism, and wrote a treatise on the theological errors of the Ethiopian church and a history of the country. He succeeded in converting some Ethiopians to Roman Catholicism. In 1618 he traced the source of the Blue Nile to Lake Tana.

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Pedro Páez

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