Sardinian Antonio Machoni. Missionary, professor and superior in the Jesuit province of Paraguay

Abstract

In this paper we present a biography constructed with published and unpublished sources on the Jesuit Antonio
Machoni with the aim of visualizing the diversified work he carried out in the Province of Paraguay in the first half of the 18th century. He fulfilled functions in the most important ministries of the Society of Jesus, once he finished his studies at the Colegio Máximo de San Ignacio de Córdoba, where he was also professor and rector in the last years of his life. But he was also an outstanding missionary among ethnic groups that were not Christianized and difficult to approach, completing functions as procurator to Europe and provincial. In each of these activities he left publications that mark his experience and trans-fer of knowledge to his continuators. We try to summarize one of those many "illustrious lives", little recognized, which we intend to amend as an example of pastoral life in the re-mote American lands.