Gospel & Culture

1. COACH Institute of Intercultural Studies, Hyderabad
Gospel & Culture

2. Roberto de Nobili
Indian Missionary
1577-1656

3. Early Life
Roberto de Nobili was born in Rome in 1577.
He was the first son of an Italian nobleman who was a
general in the papal army.
When at the age of seventeen — a year after his father's
death — Roberto announced his intention to enter the Jesuit
order and to become a missionary to Asia, the family
objected.
Their opposition was not to the idea of his entering the
priesthoodper se, for the de Nobili family had contributed
numerous clerics to the Church, including several Cardinals
and at least two Popes.
Roberto was adamant: "When God calls, nohuman
consideration should stop us."
Thus in 1596, ignoring his family's wishes,he entered the
Jesuit novitiate with the intention of becoming a foreign
missionary.

4. Struggles to be a Missionary
For a brief period de Nobili appeared to be destined for
Japan. Then, in response to appeals for reinforcements
in India, he volunteered for missionary work in the
Portuguese colony of South India.
After a period of orientation and language study, and
the usual delays, de Nobili embarked for India in April of
1604.
More than a year later, May 1605, he arrived in Goa, a
Portuguese island off the southwest Indian coast.
Adjustment to new living conditions was not easy and
during his first months in India, Roberto was very ill.
Finally, early in 1606, Roberto was sent to the Fishery
Coast to live among the Paravas, a large tribe of
outcastes.

5. Teacher of Wisdom-
தத்துவப
ோ தகர்• After a short stay in Cochin in Kerala,
he took up residence in Madurai in
November 1606.
• He soon called himself a "teacher of
wisdom" (தத்துவப ோ தகர்),and
began to dress like a Sannyasin.
• wear wooden clogs and a saffron robe
• No meat eating
• Claiming noble parentage he
approached high-caste people, and
eagerly engaged in dialogue with
Hindu scholars about the truths of
Christianity.

6. Master in Indian Language
• He mastered Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil
languages and literature, with the help of his
teacher, Shivadharma
• As he expounded the Christian doctrine in
Tamil he coined several words to
communicate his message
• He used the word
• "kovil" (கோ வில்) for a place of
worship• "arul" (அருள் ) and
"prasadam"(பிரோ தம்) for grace
• "guru" (குரு)for priest or teacher
• "Vedam" (கவதம்)for the Bible
• "poosai" (பூ ) for Mass, etc.

7. local Indian customs
• He shaved his head and keeping
only a tiny tuft
• wore a white dhoti and wooden
sandals, to don the look of
a sanyasin
• He was wearing of a three-
stringed thread across the chest.
• He interpreted the three-stringed
thread as representing the Holy
Trinity, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.

8. • He was one of the first
Europeans to gain a deep
understanding
of Sanskrit and Tamil.
• He learnt 32 languages in his
lifetime
• He composed Catechisms,
apologetic works and
philosophic discourses in Tamil,
and contributed greatly to the
development of modern Tamil
prose writing.

9. His first convert
• Roberto's first Hindu convert was the Sudra schoolmaster.
• By the end of 1608, just two years after arriving in Madurai,
de Nobili had baptized at least ten young men of caste.
• As his circle of disciples expanded, he became friends with a
Brahman Sanskrit scholar named Sivadarma who, after
considerable hesitation, permitted de Nobili to see and study
the Vedas and the Upanishads.
• As a result, Roberto de Nobili is thought to be the first
European to study Sanskrit and even to see the Hindu sacred
writings.
• At the beginning of their relationship, Sivadarma may have
believed that he was converting the personable European to
Hinduism, but by 1609 Roberto had persuaded Sivadarma to
read the Bible — which de Nobili referred to as the "Christian
Veda" — and to accept Christian baptism.

10. • By the end of 1609 Roberto had
gathered around him some sixty new
converts, incluidng a few Brahmans.
• The new converts were not asked to
violate the rules of caste or to give up
any custom which was not indisputably
idolatrous.
• The signs of caste such as the thread
and the kudumi were given a Christian
blessing.

11. Last days
• died at Mylapore, India, in Jan 1656.
• During his final years, he was banished to Jaffna,
where by then; he had lost much of his eyesight
and eventually moved to Madras as he was not
allowed back to Madurai by the Jesuits.
• Thus it was in Mylapore that the former count of
Civitella died after his last eight painful years, in
the year 1656, a broken, penniless and blind
man.