Antonio Criminali was born in 1522 in Sissa, near Parma, into a wealthy family. He decided early on to join the Jesuits, first traveling to Rome and then to Coimbra, before being assigned to the mission in the Indies. In 1545, he arrived in Goa, the Portuguese outpost in India, where he began his apostolic work. He later moved to the more southern regions of the continent, reaching the missions at Cape Comorin and Punicale. 

In 1549, the Portuguese angered the locals by imposing a toll on Hindu pilgrims traveling to the island of Rameswaram. In response, the prince of Vijayanagar hired the Badeghi, a warrior caste from the interior of the Deccan, to destroy the Portuguese settlements along the coast. The Portuguese, pursued by the warriors, fled to their ships, but the Badeghi reached the coastal village of Vedalai, where Criminali was with the local Christian community, made up of pearl fishermen. 

Criminali managed to help the converted Indians escape on boats, then knelt, raised his hands to the sky, and began to pray, waiting for the Badeghi to arrive. Two groups of them passed by, ignoring him entirely. However, upon the arrival of a third group, Criminali was wounded with a spear by a warrior, identified as Muslim due to his turban, and then stripped of his robe. Criminali tried to make his way to the mission church to die there, but he was overtaken by two more groups of Badeghi, who struck him again and finally decapitated him. They brought his head as an offering to a local Hindu temple.

The first death of a Jesuit at the hands of infidels generated great enthusiasm and admiration among young aspiring missionaries. However, the reactions of the Order's superiors and the Jesuits already active in Indian missions were much cooler. They sought capable and skilled religious men to manage colleges and missions, not young men so enamored with the idea of martyrdom that they did nothing to avoid it. In fact, while Criminali's death at the hands of the Badeghi was not deliberately sought, it certainly could have been avoided.