Giacomo Fenicio

Rev. Fr. Giacomo Fenicio (1558 - 1632), also known as Arthunkal Veluthachan, Jacomo Fenicio or Jacob Fenicio was an Italian Jesuit priest, scholar, theologian, and missionary in India.

He lived in South India as a priest and missionary from 1584 to 1632.^[1] He was one of the first Europeans who researched and authored scholastic literature about Hinduism.^[2] He was popular known among Christians of Kerala and known as Arthunkal Veluthachan or fair skinned father of Arthunkal.^[3][4]

Fenicio had significant interest in and knowledge of Hindu culture,^[5] and he studied the South Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu.^[6] Manu S. Pillai writes that Fenicio represented Portuguese colonial interests at the Hindu court in Calicut, where he converted the nephew of the rajah as part of an espionage plot.^[5]

Personal life

St. Andrew's Basilica, Arthunkal, Kerala

Fenicio was born in Capua, Italy in 1558. He arrived in India in 1582 and spent the next 48 years in South India.^[7] He became the second vicar of St. Andrew's Basilica, Arthunkal in Kerala after the death of the first vicar, Fr. Gasper Pius, who built the church. Fenicio was well-known for his tolerance towards other religions. One of the great things is the establishment of the confraternity-visionary community in the church in 1585.^{[citation needed]} Fenicio died in Cochin in 1632.^[8]

See also

• St. Andrew's Basilica, Arthunkal