Afonso Mendes

Afonso Mendes

Patriarch of Ethiopia
Contemporary portrait of King Susenyos I of Ethiopia receiving the Latin Patriarch Afonso Mendes
ChurchCatholic Church
In office19 December 1622 – 21 June 1659
PredecessorMelchior Carneiro
SuccessorJacobus Wemmers
Orders
Consecration12 March 1623
by Fernando Martins Mascarenhas
Personal details
Born(1579-06-18)18 June 1579
Died21 June 1659(1659-06-21) (aged 80)

Father Afonso Mendes (18 June 1579 – 21 June 1659) was a Portuguese Jesuit theologian, and Patriarch of Ethiopia from 1622 to 1634. While E. A. Wallis Budge has expressed the commonly accepted opinion of this man, as being "rigid, uncompromising, narrow-minded, and intolerant", there are some who disagree with it. The writings of Mendes include Expeditionis Aethiopicae, which describes the customs and conditions of Ethiopia.