Early Life and Missionary Work
John de Brito was the scion of a powerful aristocratic Portuguese family: his father died while serving as Viceroy of Brazil (see Colonial Brazil). He joined the Jesuits in 1662, studying at the famous University of Coimbra. He traveled to the missions of Madura, in southern India, present-day Tamil Nadu, in 1673 and preached the Christian religion in the region of the Marava country. He renamed himself Arul Anandar (அருளானந்தர்) in Tamil. The ruler of the Marava country imprisoned him in 1684. Having been expelled, he returned to Lisbon in 1687 and worked as a missions procurator. King Pedro II wanted him to stay, but in 1690 he returned to the Marava country with 24 new missionaries.
The Madura Mission was a bold attempt to establish an Indian Catholic Church that was relatively free of European cultural domination. As such, Brito learned the native languages, went about dressed in yellow cotton and living like a Hindu Kshatriya, abstaining from every kind of animal food and from wine. St. John de Brito tried to teach the Catholic faith in categories and concepts that would make sense to the people he taught. This method, proposed and practiced by Roberto de Nobili, met with remarkable success. Brito remained a strict vegetarian until the end of his life, rejecting meat, fish, eggs and alcohol, and living only on legumes, fruits and herbs.
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