Brandão (Dom Gaspar Afonso da Costa)

For the long period of 26 years, from 1757 to 1784, Dom Gaspar Afonso da Costa Brandão guided the destinies of this diocese, of which he was the 17th bishop. Although we do not know the acts of his episcopate in detail, we do know that he was a distinguished prelate and that his episcopal administration left the most honourable traditions. It is true that his attitude at the time of the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from this island was bitterly censured by Catholics and, it seems, even by the Roman Curia. Particular notice was taken of the violent language of the pastoral letter he then published against the members of that religious order. The prelate did not stray from the path followed by the higher Portuguese clergy, who had neither the strength nor the courage to resist the despotic impositions of the Marquis of Pombal.

Dom Gaspar Brandão was born at Vila Cova de Subavô, in the judicial district (comarca) of Arganil and the diocese of Coimbra. He was the son of Bento de Figueiredo, who belonged to old families of that locality.

He was a secular priest, and in 1756 Joseph I presented him as bishop of Funchal. He was confirmed by Benedict XIV in the consistory of 19 July of that year. He received episcopal consecration the following year and arrived in this city on 5 August 1757.

He arrived accompanied by Fathers Alasia and Reis, members of the Congregation of the Mission. During the ten years they spent in this diocese, they were his most valuable helpers in the reforms he undertook, above all in enforcing discipline in the convents of both monks and nuns. Long-ingrained abuses had crept into these houses, and they could hardly be corrected entirely. In the evangelical missions held in the parishes, in the spiritual exercises of the clergy and ordinands, and in other works of a religious and ecclesiastical nature, the two priests Alasia and Reis rendered outstanding services, which are recorded in the annals of this diocese.

In the churchyards of some parish churches there still stand today crosses on modest plinths, commemorating the passage of those clergymen through these parishes as they preached the Gospel. Dom Gaspar Brandão was a most zealous shepherd of his flock. This showed above all in his visitations of the parishes, in the pastoral letters he wrote, in his preaching, in his reform of the seminary, in the missions and in his strict enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline.

He served as governor and captain-general from 1758 to 1759, and his time at the head of the archipelago’s government was marked by an administration of the utmost zeal and honesty.

For reasons we have not been able to establish, the prelate ordered the imprisonment in the Aljube (‘bishop’s prison’) of the bachelor (bacharel, university graduate) António Xavier Pimentel. This led to a bitter conflict with the governor and captain-general João Gonçalves da Câmara Coutinho, and the two authorities exchanged a lengthy correspondence. It was ended by the intervention of the government in mainland Portugal, to which Dom Gaspar Brandão then appealed. Dom Gaspar Afonso da Costa Brandão died in this city on 14 January 1784 and was buried in the chancel of our Cathedral (Sé Catedral).