Blessed Rodolfo Acquaviva

Rodolfo Acquaviva, SJ (2 October 1550 – 25 July 1583) was an Italian Jesuit missionary and priest in India who served the court of Akbar the Great from 1580 to 1583. He was killed in 1583 and beatified in 1893. Rodolfo Acquaviva was the son of Giangirolamo Acquaviva, the 10th Duke of Atri. He was the great-grandson of Andrea Matteo Acquaviva, condottiere and man of letters. Rodolfo (also known as Rudolfo) belonged to a powerful and illustrious family of Germanic origin settled in the Kingdom of Naples since the twelfth century. His mother was Marguerite Pio, where on his mother's side, he was a cousin of Aloysius Gonzaga. In April 1568, inspired by the example of his uncle Claudio Acquaviva, who later became the 5th General of the Jesuits, he too joined the Society of Jesus. He became a novice at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale in Rome together with Stanislas Kostka. After completing his studies, Acquaviva was chosen by his superiors for the prestigious and challenging Indian missions, begun by Francis Xavier in the Portuguese territory of Goa. He then travelled to Lisbon, the starting point for the eastern voyage, where he was ordained as a priest and sailed for India in 1578. At first Acquaviva taught at Saint Paul's College, Goa but was then assigned as the leader of a mission to the court of the Grand Mughal Akbar (1542–1605) who had requested missionaries be sent. In his new palace in Fatehpur Sikri Akbar built the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) where he invited leaders of the Muslim, Hindu and other religions to debate points of religious truth, including Acquaviva and his companion Jesuit António de Monserrate (Antoni de Montserrat in his native Catalan), and their young translator, Francisco Henriques, who spoke Persian. Akbar was interested in founding a new pantheistic religion with elements from different traditions, and his new faith was called Din-i-Ilahi ("Faith of the Divine").