J. Ignatius Fernandez

J. Ignatius Fernandez (1757-1830) was born in Portuguese Macao, and was trained for the priesthood by an Augustinian monk. He grew skeptical of “Rome’s image-worship,” however, and declined the priesthood. He traveled to Bengal in 1774, where he eventually built a large wax-candle factory and an indigo plantation. He was converted through the work of the BMS missionaries in 1796, baptized in 1801 and ordained in 1804. Thereafter he became a true friend of the mission, ministering to the church at Dinagepore for many years and organizing several schools. Carey once sent him to England to buy “works of good philosophy and divinity, not in antiquated language!” Fernandez is first mentioned in a letter of Carey to Fuller on 22 June 1797. William Yates, in his Memoir of John Chamberlain, includes a long letter by Chamberlain to John Ryland, dated 3 September 1804, in which Chamberlain informs Ryland that he and his wife had recently stayed with Fernandez in Dinagepore. To Chamberlain, Fernandez was a man whose “heart is warm with the love of Christ, nor has he greater pleasure than when he is telling the good news of salvation to poor sinners. He supports a school, consisting of about thirty boys, some of whom could read the Scriptures, say the catechism, and sing several hymns . . . Brother Fernandez’s situation is solitary, but far from discouraging. He preaches every Lord’s day to his servants, and sometimes others attend; besides which, he has many opportunities of speaking to people about their spiritual concerns.” William Carey, writing to either William or Samuel Hope of Liverpool shortly after the death of Fernandez, recalled his first meeting with Fernandez in 1796:  “He was then building a dwelling-house at Dinagepore, which, he said, he intended for the worship of God, and invited brother Thomas and myself to preach at the opening of it, which we soon after did. From that time till this there has been preaching in it; and our late brother was the instrument of collecting the largest church in Bengal. It now consists of nearly one hundred members, and when we take into account those who have died in the Lord, the number must amount to one hundred at least. These will be his crown of joy in the day of the Lord Jesus.” See S. Pearce Carey, William Carey, D.D. (London: George H. Doran, 1923), 170; Eustace Carey, Memoir of Dr. Carey, 2nd ed. (London: Jackson and Walford, 1837), 308; William Yates, Memoirs of Mr. John Chamberlain, Late Missionary in India (Calcutta. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1824), 1:388-389; S. Powell,  “Account of Mr. F—,” Baptist Annual Register, vol. 3 (1798-1801), 405-407.