BERMUDEZ, JOÃO

Pseudo-patriarch of Ethiopia, adventurer; d. S. Sabastião de Pedreira, Lisbon, 1570. Bermudez was a barber or surgeon in the Portuguese embassy, under Rodrigo de Lima, from Goa to the Ethiopian port of Massawa in 1520. He was in the suite of the negus of Ethiopia, David Lebna Dengel, for five years. When the Portuguese left the country in 1527, he remained behind. In 1535 when the negus was attacked by Muslims of Somalia and Galla under Ahmed Granye, Bermudez was sent to Portugal for help. In Rome in 1538–39, he claimed that he had been ordained as his successor by the schismatic Ethiopian patriarch, Marcos. When Bermudez returned to Ethiopia in 1541 with a Portuguese force under Cristovão, the son of Vasco da Gama, he claimed he had been confirmed by the pope. Although suspect in Rome and in Ethiopia, Bermudez succeeded in occupying the Ethiopian patriarchate until 1555, when he was expelled by Negus Galawdewos and replaced by a Jesuit from Portugal. He was back in Portugal in 1559 and later (Lisbon 1565) published an account of his embassy to Portugal.

Bibliography: e. cerulli, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2d new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:233–234. s. euringer, "Der Pseudopatriarch Johannes Bermudes," Theologie und Glaube 17 (1925) 226–256. i. ortiz de urbina, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 8:542–543.

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