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Alessandro Valignano, born in 1539 in Chieti, kingdom of Naples, was an Italian Jesuit missionary who helped supervise the introduction of Christianity to the Far East, and especially to Japan.
He joined the Society of Jesus in 1566 and was sent to the Far East in 1573. He founded the Jesuit college in Macao.
He travelled from Goa and visited Japan three times, in 1579 when he stayed three years, in 1590 and in 1598.
Valignano was a great admirer of the Japanese people and envisioned a future when Japan would be one of the leading Christian countries in the world.
In 1584, Alessandro Valignano published a book on the progress of the Jesuits in Asia "Historia del Principio y Progresso de la Compania de Jesus en las Indias Orientales (1542-64)" ("History of the Beginnings and Progress of the Society of Jesus in the East Indies (1542-64)").
He died in Macau in 1606.
Valignano, Alessandro Valignano, Alessandro