Giulio Mancinelli (Latin: Julius Mancinellus) was a Jesuit missionary who lived from 1537 to 1618. He worked as a missionary during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1583, he founded the first Jesuit mission in Istanbul, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire at that time.

Early life

Mancinelli was born into an important family. In 1558, he joined the Jesuits. In 1566, he became a novice at the first training house in Rome.

Missionary appointments

Mancinelli was a missionary in Bosnia and Dalmatia. He led a Jesuit mission to Istanbul, which the Pope started in 1583. The group held religious services in the Church of Saint Benoit and opened schools with help from French and Venetian ambassadors.

From 1585 to 1587, Mancinelli traveled from Constantinople through Wallachia and Moldova. He visited Lwów, which was then part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and is now in Ukraine. In 1586, he stayed in Kraków, also part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where he briefly taught Andrzej Gembicki, a suffragan of Kraków. Mancinelli is connected to the history of the worship of The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland.

He had a vision of the Virgin Mary, who told him to call her the Queen of Poland. News of this vision helped spread the worship of the Queen of Poland Assumed into Heaven. These messages were shared by Albrecht Radziwiłł of Nieśwież, who was supported by St. Andrzej Bobola, later the writer of the Lwów Oath.

Mancinelli traveled as far as Muscovy and then returned to Italy through Vienna, where he stayed for several months. In 1592, he was sent to Algiers after the government of Naples asked the Jesuits to rescue Christian slaves. He wrote about this journey in Morea (Rome, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Vitae, 46, cf. 68–83) and in "Observations about redeeming Christian slaves from Servitude to Unbelievers" (ibid., Vitae, 51, cc. 43r-45r). During the trip, he had a supernatural experience in which saints and angels appeared to him, confirming the success of his mission to Moldova. He recorded his observations.

In 1608, Mancinelli was on a mission in England. He reported that he saw angels during this time. In his later years, he often advised young men who traveled to England, hoping to bring the country back into union with Rome.