Balthasar Seña (c. 1590 at

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain – 19 July 1614 at Guarambare,

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

) was a Spanish

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary and linguist in South America.

Life

He entered the Jesuit novitiate at

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, in 1608. Before completing his studies he volunteered for the Guarani missions of Paraguay, and sailed from Lisbon in company with the veteran missionary, Juan Romero, in 1610, continuing his studies on the voyage. The rest of his life was spent at the Guarani mission town of Guarambare or with the Itatines, whose language he studied and reduced to dictionary form. He defended them against slave-dealers, and declined an offered preferment at Santa Fe in order to remain with his mission work. Attending the sick throughout a contagious epidemic, he himself fell ill and died. His remains were afterwards taken up and reinterred at the Jesuit college at Asuncion.

References

;Attribution * The entry cites: **Lozano, ''Hist. de la Comp. de J. en Paraguay'', II (Madrid, 1754-5). {{DEFAULTSORT:Sena, Balthasar 1590 births 1614 deaths People from Barcelona 17th-century Spanish Jesuits Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay Spanish missionary linguists Jesuits from Catalonia