Vieira, Sebastiano

Vieira, Sebastiano a Portuguese missionary, was born at Castro Daire (diocese of Lamego) in 1570. At the age of sixteen he entered the Order of St. Ignatius, and prepared himself for evangelical labor in the East Indies. In 1602 he arrived in Japan, and spent several years there; thence he went to Manila, and again to Japan, gathering converts continually. Being sent for by the home authorities to report at Rome, he was condemned as a traitor by the Japanese, and on his return was seized, commanded to renounce his faith, and on refusal was cruelly martyred, June 6,1634. See Biographie Universelle, s.v.