_ 317 _ I commend myself in God to the holy sacrifices and prayers of Your Reverence. This day, 20 October 1554 in Ormuz. 10. By another carrier, who left this city by land(A) I have written a letter to Your Reverence to inform you of two things. One is that a Father who had been a prisoner in Cairo came here,(B) and he told me that in Beirut, two or three days from Jerusalem in this direction towards Aleppo, there was a house of Franciscans(C). They wanted to leave and go to Jerusalem or Venice because their Order did not give them the freedom and leisure that was necessary to gather the fruit which could be harvested among the Arab Christians in that province by whoever did have such time and freedom. He said that Your Reverence should see whether it were possible to send some Father of the Society, so that we could correspond each month from this part of India, and Your Reverence would have news quicker from here. Also, (A) i.e. via Syria, as can be seen from what follows. (B) Father Michael de Nóbrega, who ran away from the college in Goa in 1552 and was held as captive in Cairo, (cf. Documenta Indica Vol II 487 and MI Epp. VII [Quaracchi 19301 72). (C) For the Franciscan house in Northern Syria cf. H.Golubovich, O.F.M.. Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica della Terra santa e dell'Oriente Francescano Nuova Serie, vol. VII (Quarecchi 1930 72).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy