Interview with the missionary : frequently asked questions for Jesuit petitioners for the Indies / Frei, Elisa and Nebgen Christoph

Published by Institute of Jesuit Sources 

The Roman archives of the Society of Jesus hold over twenty thousand letters—litterae indipetae—in which young Jesuits petitioned their superiors for missions abroad. While these letters are currently well-studied, there is limited insight into the broader social, religious, and political contexts that shaped missionary appointments. This book fills that gap by presenting, translating, and analyzing three early modern documents that offer invaluable perspectives on mission readiness and application.

The first document is a Latin collection by Franz Xaver Amrhyn, S.J. (1655–1731), containing meditative and ascetic texts to help aspiring missionaries discern their vocation. The second is a manuscript formerly held at Ingolstadt, featuring practical advice on qualities required for Eastern missions and a Q&A section on petitioning Rome. The third, Misión a las Indias, is a 1620 Spanish handbook by Girolamo Pallas, S.J. (1594–1670), who upon arriving in Peru detailed his experiences and outlined strategies for navigating the application process.

Together, these documents shed light on the blend of spiritual, practical, and political considerations that informed missionary applications in the Jesuit order during the early modern period.

Early modern litterae indipetae for the East Indies / by Elisa Frei.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Jesuits usually joined the Society in their mid-teens, spent a decade receiving further education, and their first assignment was likely to be teaching and ministry in Europe. For many of them, however, the East Indies appealed more to their desire for novelty, danger, and martyrdom. This book considers thousands of Indipetae for the first time as a coherent and self-concluded work written by a scholar with a long-time experience with them. It demonstrates the importance of apparently secondary and less-used sources (like the generals' replies) in order to provide a more exhaustive picture of the Society of Jesus and its members' dreams and aspirations"-- Provided by publisher.

During the early modern period, thousands of Jesuits across Europe wrote individual applications for appointments in the “Indies” directly to the superior general of the Society of Jesus in Rome. Known today as litterae indipetae (from Indias petere, that is, applying for the missions in the Eastern and Western territories), these letters encompassed the most personal desires, hopes, and dreams of young Jesuits who sought to become missionaries.
This book is the first English monograph on litterae indipetae and studies their style and structure, the background of their authors and the reasons behind this choice, and the network surrounding this practice (natural and spiritual families, procurators, confrères). Its purpose is also to recapture the experiences of these individuals since lost to history by studying thousands of indipetae, in this case written mainly by Italian Jesuits at the turn of the eighteenth century. It focuses especially on the petitions aimed at East Asia and analyzes in depth case-studies of Jesuits whose missionary zeal for China and Japan¬ was fulfilled—or not.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Litterae Indipetae 6
1.1 Purpose, Structure, and Instructions 6
1.1.1 How to Write Good litterae indipetae: Instructions from Above 8
1.2 A “Typical” Petitioner?: Health and Age 19
1.2.1 Linguistic and Scientific Skills 24
1.2.2 Virtue and Rhetoric 28
1.2.3 The Strategies of Temporal Coadjutors 32
Conclusions 37
2 Desires: Push and Pull Factors 38
Introduction 38
2.1 Pull Factors 39
2.1.1 Reading 39
2.1.2 “To Do and to Suffer” 45
2.1.3 Miracles and Signs 48
2.2 Push Factors: Reasons to Leave 53
2.2.1 Family Tensions 53
2.2.2 Distancing Oneself from Superiors and Other Jesuits 59
Conclusions 71
3 The Petitioners’ Network 73
3.1 Strategies to Be Chosen: Not Only Indipetae, but Also Hearings
in Rome 73
3.1.1 Procurators of the East Indies 76
3.2 The Generals and Their Replies 88
3.2.1 Ignazio Maria Romeo (1676–1724?) 91
4 Case Studies: China and Japan 114
4.1 The Desire for the Far East 114
4.2 “Unsuccessful” Candidates 122
4.2.1 Carlo Sarti (1706–?) 122
4.2.2 Giovanni Berlendis (1664–1745) 125
4.3 “Successful” Candidates 128

4.3.1 Agostino Cappelli (1679–1715) 128
4.3.2 Ludovico Gonzaga (1673–1718) 135
Conclusions 146
Appendix 1: Asian Preference in the indipetae from the Italian
Assistancy (1687–1730) 148
Appendix 2: Indipetae Sent from the Italian Assistancy
(1687–1730) 149
Appendix 3: Origin of the indipetae Written from the Italian
Assistancy (1687–1730) 150
Appendix 4: Indipetae from the Italian Assistancy according to the
Jesuit Province (1687–1730) 151
Conclusions 153
Index of Names 161

Local access dig.pdf. [Frei-Indipetae.pdf]

Brill Open Access book

The first Italian indipetae : Jesuit petitions for the Indies (1557-80) / Emanuele Colombo, Irene Gaddo, and Guido Mongini, eds.

"The litterae indipetae (from Latin, petere Indias) are the petitions of Jesuits who yearned to be assigned to foreign missions. While scholars have delved deeply into the nearly sixteen thousand indipetae written between 1581 (at the outset of Claudio Acquaviva's generalate) and 1773 (the date of the Society's suppression), scant attention has been given to the "first" indipetae. These early petitions, composed during the generalates of Diego Laínez (1558-65), Francisco de Borja (1565-72), and Everard Mercurian (1573-80), stand as innovative exemplars of a genre that would burgeon during the seventeenth century and last until the mid-twentieth century. This volume tells the story of ninety-one indipetae. These are displayed alongside their English translations to allow readers to relive the fervor and dreams of early Jesuits."---Publisher's website.