Ange de Saint Joseph

In 1662 he took up the study of Arabic in the convent of San Pancrazio in Rome, under Celestino à San-Liduvina, brother of the Orientalist Golius. In 1664 he was sent to the East as missionary, and while visiting Smyrna and Ispahan was instructed in Persian by Balthazar, a Portuguese Carmelite.

He passed ten years in Persia and Arabia, acting as prior at Ispahan and, later, at Basra. On the capture of the latter place by the Turks, he went to Constantinople and succeeded in gaining for his mission the protection of the Sultan, through the mediation of the French ambassador.

He was recalled to Rome in 1679, and in 1680 was made superior of missions in the Netherlands, England, and Ireland, where he spent many years. He was Provincial in his order at the time of his death.

His writings are:

• "Pharmacopoeia Persica, ex idiomate persico in latinum conversa" (Paris, 1681).

Hyde (Biographia Britannica, cited by Langlès, Biographie universelle) asserts that the credit for this work really belongs to Père Matthieu.

Another work by Ange de Saint Joseph, which is praised by Bernier, Pétis de la Croix, and Chardin is

• "Gazophylacium linguæ Persarum" (Amsterdam, 1684),

a grammar with a dictionary in Latin, Italian, and French.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ange de Saint Joseph". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
  • MARTALIS A SCO. JOANNE-BAPTISTA, Bibl. Script. Carmel. excalceatorum;
  • Nicéron, Mémoires, XXIX, 26.