Castilho (Viscount of)

On the afternoon of 27 November 1840 the brigantine-schooner Funchal, then the ship that ran regular voyages between Lisbon and Madeira, dropped anchor in the harbour of Funchal. She carried a number of passengers, among them the great poet and eminent man of letters António Feliciano de Castilho. He was accompanying his brother, Dr Augusto Frederico de Castilho, who was suffering from a serious lung disease and had come to this island to seek relief in the mildness of our climate.

Dr Frederico de Castilho was a canon of Lisbon Cathedral (Sé de Lisboa) and a high court judge (desembargador) of the patriarchal curia, as well as a poet and prose writer of rare merit. For many years he served as secretary to his illustrious brother, and he did much to bring some of the writer’s works of poetic genius to light.

Castilho felt the purest brotherly love for him, as many pages of his works show: he calls him ‘the best of brothers’ and refers to him with the utmost tenderness and affection. It was this deep attachment that led him, despite his blindness, to undertake so arduous a journey, never leaving his beloved brother’s side for a single moment.

The distinguished Madeiran Januário Vicente Camacho, governor of this diocese and bishop-elect of Castelo Branco, placed the residence of the chapel of Our Lady of the Peña de Francia (Nossa Senhora da Penha de França), where the late prelate Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto lived for many years, at António Feliciano de Castilho’s disposal. Standing above the sea on the outskirts of the city, the residence was considered to meet the conditions required by the illness from which the illustrious patient was suffering.

There the great master of our language received the most notable marks of esteem from all the people of high social standing in our island, who shared deeply in the immense grief that so cruelly pierced his brother’s heart and his passionate poet’s soul.

Augusto Frederico de Castilho reached Funchal with his strength so depleted, and his illness so far advanced, that neither the healthful air of this favoured land nor the efforts of medicine, combined with his brother’s utmost devotion, could save him from death, which everyone in the city at once considered inevitable. A little over a month later, on 31 December, at one o’clock in the afternoon, Augusto Castilho succumbed to the ravages of the dreadful pulmonary tuberculosis. He died in the arms of his beloved brother, surrounded by a few people who sought to make the last moments of the ill-fated invalid as painless as possible.

His body was laid in the Colégio church (Igreja do Colégio, the Jesuit college church), and from there the funeral procession set out for the Cathedral (Sé Catedral), where the office of the dead was sung. It then continued to the Angústias cemetery, where the mortal remains of the illustrious priest were buried in a family vault of his own. Everyone of the greatest distinction in our land joined the funeral, beginning with the highest authorities of the district. It was a great tribute of respect to the dead man and of esteem and admiration for the great man of letters who was our illustrious guest. Having lost his brother, Castilho thought only of returning to the bosom of his family. He took with him the precious treasure of his brother’s heart: by his last wishes, Augusto had asked that it be removed from his breast, so that it could be buried together with the mortal remains of his dear and inseparable companion of so many years.

António Feliciano de Castilho left Madeira on 9 January 1841. In the same year he delivered at the Royal Conservatory of Lisbon (Conservatório Real de Lisboa) the historical eulogy of his brother Augusto Frederico de Castilho, which is one of his finest literary works. This eulogy contains some deeply felt pages in which Castilho describes his brother’s illness and death in Madeira.

The Castilho family had a small marble monument erected over the grave of Dr Augusto Castilho in the Angústias cemetery. It is surmounted by his coat of arms and bears this epitaph: ‘To the memory of Dr Augusto Frederico de Castilho, knight of various orders, former prior (title of the parish priest) of Castanheiro, candidate for a chair at the University of Coimbra, governor of the diocese (governador do bispado, administering the see in the bishop’s absence) of Beja and deputy of the Portuguese nation, archpriest of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Lisbon and member of many literary societies; born in Lisbon on 4 September 1802 and died in Funchal on 31 December 1840.’