Bettencourt (Dr António João de França)

This professor at the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) was born in Calheta (‘small cove’) on 19 October 1827, the son of António João de França Bettencourt and Dona Ana Rita Telo de Meneses. He came from old and noble families of that town (vila).

After attending the Funchal lyceum (state secondary school), he enrolled in the Faculty of Theology of our University, where he won the highest distinctions. He took his doctorate there and received the doctoral hood (capelo) on 27 July 1862.

Only ten years later did he sit the competitive examination for a professorship of Theology. He was placed first, his rival being Dr Luís Maria da Silva Ramos, who later became one of the most distinguished professors of that faculty. For this examination Dr Bettencourt submitted a study on the Verdade philosophica do mysterio da Incarnação, which was published as a book and ran to two successive editions; it is considered a very valuable work of its kind.

He taught theology at the seminary (Seminário) of Coimbra, and history and Hebrew at the lyceum of the same city. He belonged to several learned societies and to the Instituto de Coimbra, to whose journal he contributed. He was the founder and one of the most brilliant editors of the Revista de Theologia, which enjoyed great renown in its day. He was one of the most active and zealous provedores of the Holy House of Mercy (Santa Casa da Misericórdia) of Coimbra, and his name remains bound to the important services he rendered there.

According to the Esboço Historico Literario da faculdade de theologia da Universidade de Coimbra by Dr M. Eduardo da Mota Veiga, Dr França Bettencourt was the first Madeiran to teach in the Faculty of Theology there since the Marquis of Pombal’s reform of 1772, and the second to take a doctorate in that faculty, the first having been Dom Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, a former bishop of this diocese.

Dr António João de França Bettencourt died in Coimbra on 29 October 1882, at the age of 55.