Barreto (Dom Manuel Agostinho)

He was the penultimate and 26th bishop of this diocese. From what we know of the ecclesiastical chronicles of Madeira, we can state that he was the most illustrious prelate ever to occupy the episcopal throne of Funchal. He was born on 7 December 1835 in the parish (freguesia) of Coentral, in the bishopric of Coimbra, the son of José Agostinho Barreto and Dona Maria Barreto. He graduated in theology from the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) in 1858, and in 1864 he was appointed a canon of Lamego Cathedral. There he held important offices, among them professor at the seminary (Seminário), vicar general, provisor (diocesan judicial and administrative officer) and governor of the diocese (governador do bispado, administering the see in the bishop's absence). Throughout mainland Portugal he enjoyed a reputation as a remarkable preacher, and some of his sermons became memorable. In the diocese of Lamego his name was surrounded by a true aura of veneration and the most respectful esteem, owing to his virtues, austerity of character, talent, learning and ardent zeal in the ecclesiastical duties he performed there for some years.

On 8 June 1876 he was presented as bishop of Funchal, and he was confirmed by the Holy See on 29 September of the same year. By a warrant (provisão) of 16 December he appointed Canon João Frederico Nunes, who was then serving as vicar capitular (administrator of the vacant diocese elected by the chapter), as governor of the diocese of Funchal. He took possession of the diocese on the 26th of that month, through a power of attorney granted to Canon Alfredo César de Oliveira.

His episcopal consecration took place in the Basílica da Estrela (‘star’) in Lisbon on 4 February 1877. The consecrating bishop was the Archbishop of Mitylene, Dom António José de Freitas Honorato, who had been his professor at Coimbra, and the assisting prelates were Dom José Maria Ferrão de Carvalho Martens, Bishop of Bragança, and Dom José Lino de Oliveira, the retired Bishop of Angola. On the 22nd of the same month Dom Manuel Barreto arrived in this city, and on the 25th he made his solemn entry into the Cathedral, delivering on that occasion an eloquent address that deeply impressed his audience.

A month after his arrival in this city, a serious conflict arose between the prelate and the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) over the burial of a suicide in the Angústias cemetery, as already mentioned above (see Angústias). He then showed the greatest independence of character, both in the way he settled the question and in the boldness with which he addressed it from the pulpit of the Cathedral in a sermon that became unforgettable. Even so, there were those who described the act as reckless and ill-considered courage, and even as a challenge thrown down to the liberal classes of Madeira. The prelate upheld the canon laws and faced squarely all the consequences of doing his duty.

Once that stormy tempest had passed, he devoted himself entirely to the administration of his diocese, which absorbed the whole activity of his mind until the last moments of his long episcopal career, a mind ever filled with the greatest dedication and the purest zeal and solicitude for the welfare of the flock entrusted to him. Seeking a quiet and peaceful refuge, he withdrew to the modest residence of the chapel of Our Lady of the Peña de Francia (Nossa Senhora da Penha de França), and there he spent 34 years in retirement and work. He left his hermitage only when the unavoidable obligations of his ministry, his official duties or his shaken health forcibly compelled him to do so. Before long, his great qualities as an apostle, his rare administrative tact, his unbending energy in upholding ecclesiastical discipline, his most remarkable reform of the seminary, his unsurpassed zeal in propagating and developing religious feeling, the austerity of his ever modest life, stripped of all pomp, his ardent and proverbial charity, his active and never interrupted evangelisation through the spoken and written word, the founding of schools and of various social works, his frequent pastoral visitations throughout the diocese, etc., etc., won for his name the highest prestige, the loftiest esteem and the deepest respect that few Portuguese prelates can have attained in the last 50 years. If we further add the brilliant oratorical gifts that made him a born orator, his notable learning, his qualities as a writer and the charming conversation that so captivated and attracted, we shall see converging in a single man a series of such rare and extraordinary attributes as we could otherwise find only scattered among many individuals. For all these reasons he was considered the foremost Portuguese bishop of his time.

His first and most devoted measures were directed at the diocesan seminary. He arrived in Funchal at the end of February 1877, and by the beginning of the following October a complete course of preparatory studies, which had not previously existed, was already running there. Its boarding facilities were enlarged and its internal organisation completely remodelled, the whole establishment undergoing a radical transformation. Having succeeded in placing Father Ernst Schmitz at the head of this house of religious instruction and education, he saw this clergyman render the most signal and outstanding services there, not only in the formation and preparation of the future clergy but also in the establishment of a regional zoological museum. This was a truly exemplary creation of its kind, spoken of with high praise by several distinguished foreign naturalists who visited it, and it had an attached physics laboratory for the practical teaching of that science. The greatest ambition of Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto was to provide the diocese with a building fit to house the seminary, in which the various services of an establishment of this nature would be amply accommodated and could fully serve their purpose. This ardent wish was fulfilled through the inheritance left to him by Dona Maria Leopoldina de Oliveira. On the convent grounds (cerca) of the former convent of the Incarnação he had a fine and spacious building erected, on which he spent his entire fortune, both inherited and acquired. Although it was never entirely completed, it had the capacity and the essential requirements to house the diocesan seminary, which operated there for some years until it was abolished by the decree of 20 April 1911, the building passing immediately into the possession of the State. (See seminary).

We should go too far if we had to describe in detail every act of the episcopal administration of Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto. Anyone wishing for a more detailed knowledge of his biography as bishop of this diocese should read no. 168 of the Quinzena Religiosa (‘Religious Fortnightly’), of 1 February 1908, and no. 2008 of the Heraldo da Madeira (‘Madeira Herald’), of 27 June 1911.

Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto died at the residence attached to the chapel of Our Lady of the Peña de Francia on 26 June 1911 and was buried in the Angústias cemetery. Among his last wishes was this humble and pious detail: ‘he asks that, after five years have passed, his bones be moved in a small urn to the churchyard of the Penha chapel, in front of and next to the main door, covered by a plain stone bearing his name and the dates of his birth and death, with a cross at the top and the letters P. N. A. M. at the bottom, to beg the faithful who pass by for a devout Requiem aeternam’. Twelve years later, on 26 June 1923, the remains of the eminent prelate were solemnly transferred. They were covered with a small gravestone bearing this modest epitaph: Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto, Bishop of Funchal. Born on 7 December 1835, died on 26 June 1911, aged 76, in the 34th year of his episcopate. P. A. H. M.

From Part IV of Volume IV of the notable work Historia da Igreja em Portugal, by the illustrious writer Fortunato de Almeida, we transcribe a summary of the principal biographical facts about the prelate Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto: ‘He was born in the parish (freguesia) of Pedrógão Grande on 7 December 1835 and graduated in theology at the University of Coimbra in 1858. He was professor of ecclesiastical sciences at the seminary of Lamego from 1864, canon of the cathedral of that city from 1866, provisor (diocesan judicial and administrative officer) and vicar general of the bishopric from 1868, and domestic prelate to His Holiness from 1870. Presented to the see of Funchal by decree of 8 June 1876, he was confirmed in the consistory of 29 September of the same year. He took possession through his representative (procurador), Canon Alfredo César de Oliveira, on 26 December. On 4 February 1877 he was consecrated in the basilica of the Coração de Jesus (Heart of Jesus), at Estrela, in Lisbon, by the Archbishop of Mitylene, Dom António José de Freitas Honorato, assisted by Dom José Maria Ferrão de Carvalho Martens, Bishop of Bragança, and Dom José Lino de Oliveira, retired Bishop of Angola. He left Lisbon on 20 February and landed at Funchal on the afternoon of the 22nd. On the following Sunday, the 25th, he made his solemn entry, and on 2 March he issued his first pastoral letter. “Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto was a most remarkable bishop for his talents and virtues. A distinguished orator, he also proved a writer of great merit in his pastoral letters; some of these are models of their kind, for their doctrinal substance and their literary craftsmanship. Charity, humility and a spirit of justice were virtues in which he always excelled, and his pastoral zeal, his dedication to the affairs of his diocese and his detachment from all personal interest recall the most virtuous Portuguese prelates of former times. From the outset this brilliant combination of qualities earned him the veneration of his flock. Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto, says one of his biographers, was a model priest and bishop. Although he had received substantial legacies that would have allowed him ample comfort and even luxury, he lived in his most modest residence with the simplicity of an ascetic. A poor bed and a poor table met the material needs of an existence wholly devoted to the spiritual life. In his view those revenues were better employed in founding schools, relieving widowers, protecting orphans and helping all those whom fortune had forsaken.”’

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The favourite work of Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto was the diocesan seminary, which he reformed and improved remarkably. Besides creating several new chairs, he founded a cabinet of physical and natural sciences under the direction of Father Ernst Schmitz; so notable was this achievement that it won the praise of specialists at home and abroad. Later, recognising that the old building in Rua do Mosteiro Novo was in poor condition, he had the new seminary of the Incarnação built at his own expense and at great personal sacrifice, and it became a shining crown of glory for the great prelate’.