Jesuit priest, missionary, diplomat, orator, and theologian Antônio Vieira was born in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, on February 6, 1608, the first of the four sons of Maria de Azevedo, a mulatto woman and civil servant Cristóvão Vieira Ravasco. At age six, when … Read MoreAntônio Vieira (1608-1697)
Eva R. Boone, born Eva R. Coles, was a Virginia-born missionary in Congo Free State (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo). Coles was born on January 8, 1880 in Charlottesville, Virginia. She graduated from Hartshorn Memorial College in Richmond, Virginia—which preceded Spelman and Bennett Colleges as the first college for African American women—in May … Read MoreEva R. Coles (1880-1902)
As one of the first known sub-Saharan Africans to study at a European university, the freed slave Jacobus Capitein became a celebrity in Holland for his academic and religious achievements and later returned to his homeland to evangelize the indigenous population. Capitein was born on … Read MoreJacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein (ca. 1717-1747)
