José de Anchieta y Díaz de Clavijo, SJ (Joseph of Anchieta; 19 March 1534 – 9 June 1597) was a Spanish missionary to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the first century after its European discovery, Anchieta was one of the founders of São Paulo in 1554 and of Rio de Janeiro in 1565. He is the first playwright, the first grammarian and the first poet born in the Canary Islands, and is considered the father of Brazilian literature.

Anchieta took part in the religious instruction, evangelization, and conversion to the Catholic faith of the Indian population. His efforts along with those of another Jesuit missionary, Manuel da Nóbrega, at Indian pacification were crucial to the establishment of stable colonial settlements in the colony.

With his book Arte de gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil (1595), Anchieta became the first person to provide an orthography to Old Tupi, the language most commonly spoken along the coast of Brazil.

Anchieta is familiarly known as "the Apostle of Brazil". He was canonized by Pope Francis on 3 April 2014. He was the second native of the Canary Islands, after fellow missionary Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur, to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church. Anchieta is also considered the third saint of Brazil.

Anchieta was born on 19 March 1534, in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain, to a wealthy family. His father was João López de Anchieta, of Urrestilla a neighborhood in Azpeitia, in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country), and his mother was Mência Diaz de Clavijo y Llarena, of a noble family in the Canary Islands. He was baptized on 7 April 1534 in the Parish of Our Lady of Remedies (now La Laguna Cathedral). He lived in his family home, a building now known as Casa Anchieta, in La Laguna until he was 14 years old.

His father, Juan López de Anchieta y Zelayaran, was a landowner from Urrestilla, in the Basque Country. He had escaped to Tenerife in 1525 after participating in an unsuccessful rebellion against the Emperor Charles V. Through him, Anchieta was related to Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. His mother was Mencia Díaz de Clavijo y Llarena, a descendant of Castillian conquerors of Tenerife. Mencia was the daughter of Sebastián de Llarena, a Jew who had converted to Christianity, from the kingdom of Castile, and his wife, descendant of the Guanche nobility.

At the age of 14, Anchieta went to study in Portugal at the Royal College of Arts in Coimbra. He was intensely religious and felt he had a vocation to the priesthood. He sought admission to the Jesuit College of the University of Coimbra and was accepted into the Jesuits on 1 May 1551, at the age of 17. While a novice, he nearly ruined his health by his excessive austerity. He had an injury to the spine that made him nearly a hunchback. He learned to write Portuguese and Latin, in addition to Spanish.

In 1553, the Jesuits included Anchieta among the third group of their members sent to the Portuguese colony of Brazil, believing that the climate would improve his health. After a perilous journey and a shipwreck, Anchieta and his small group of survivors arrived in São Vicente. It was the first village to have been founded by the Portuguese in Brazil. There he made his first contact with the Tapuia Indians living in the region.