Da menoridade do outro e do portarem-se como meninos: cartas das missões jesuítas no Brasil e no Japão do ano de 1549

The activities of the Company of Jesus under theauspices of the Portuguese Patronage attainedtheir greatest reach in the mid-16th century withthe boundaries established by two geographicalextremes, Brazil and Japan. The diverse locationsin which such activities were then ongoing didremain in some kind of contact through thepeople, the products and the information incirculation. Within this flow, whatever arrivedfrom territories outside of Europe bore certainrepercussions within the continent as well as viceversa. The news, experiences and expectationswere of the most diverse nature and contributingtowards the configuration and the stance takenby not only by the Company but also by theCatholic Church itself over the course of time.Within the scope of better grasping the firstreflections of the Jesuit missionaries as regardsthe peoples encountered in these two missionsbased on the scenario set out above, we selectedthe letters from 1549, the year of foundationof both missions, written by their respectivepioneering leaders, Manuel da Nóbrega (1517-1570) in Brazil and Francisco Xavier (1506-1552)in Japan. In analysing the paths set out priorto the establishment of these missions, preciselybecause they represented two extreme pointson the Jesuit missionary campaign as well asin the activities of the Portuguese crown, wemay gain a greater insight into the differentmodes of evangelising and the concepts surroundingconversion and the peoples requiringconversion in addition to their resonance foreach region and also including within this perspectivethe efforts undertaken within the specificEuropean context.