Francis Xavier, the founder of the Jesuit mission in Goa in India, chose Gaspar Barzaeus from the Dutch Republic to be their leader.
A few prominent individuals were also won over by him, including the daughter and wife of a Safavid diplomat traveling through Hormuz on his way to India.
He also attempted to turn mosques into churches and forbid Jews from staying in Hormuz, thus risking a hostile reaction from the ruling Safavid Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576) and the local populace.
Volunteering to be the first Christian missionaries to reach the Iranian capital of Isfahan, they left their base in Mughal India.
With the establishment of Jesuit outposts in Yerevan, Shamakhi, and Ganja, their influence had expanded to Shirvan and Armenia by the late 17th century.