Convent of the Incarnation

The foundation of the convent of Nossa Senhora da Incarnação was inspired by the purest and most ardent patriotism. Canon Henrique Calaça de Viveiros had vowed to build a convent in honour and praise of the Virgin of the Incarnation, to whom he was deeply devoted, once his country had wholly freed itself from the iron Castilian yoke and regained its former independence. He faithfully kept his vow, having the modest convent built in the year 1650. Canon Calaça was born around 1589 and died on 25 May 1662. His life-size portrait, which until a few years ago still hung in the choir of the convent, bore in one corner of the canvas the following words: ‘Portrait from life of Canon Henrique Calaça de Viveiros, founder of this convent. He died on 25 May 1662, aged 73.’

Dr Álvaro de Azevedo says: ‘…it began as a chantry (capela), which is presumed to have been founded by António Mialheiro, who died in 1565; Dona Isabel Maria Acciaioli had the chancel built; and then, in 1650, Canon Henrique Calaça de Viveiros founded the convent…’. From these words it follows that the foundation of the convent belongs to Canon Calaça, although he made use of the chapel that already stood there. The extensive convent grounds were part of a fine quinta (country estate) that the founder owned at that spot.

It seems to have begun as a recolhimento (religious retreat house for women) under the name of Santa Teresa de Jesus, whose inmates followed the Third Order of Carmel and entered it in the year 1652. Only in 1660 was it turned into a convent, under the Franciscan rule of St Clare. Its first abbess was a nun from the Convent of St Clare (Santa Clara), chosen by the ecclesiastical authority. It was in that same year of 1660, that is, two years before his death, that Canon Calaça de Viveiros gave all his property to the convent he had founded. The convent and church underwent major repairs around the middle of the 18th century, when a new and spacious choir was built to replace the old one, which was cramped. The Royal Treasury (Fazenda Real) contributed one conto (one million réis) de réis to these works, as granted by the royal decree (alvará) of 10 February 1750. The following year the Royal Treasury also contributed 750,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) towards building the great wall that flanks the road leading to the church of St Lucy (Santa Luzia).

The nuns of the Incarnação had to abandon their convent when the British occupied this island for the second time, in the period from December 1807 to October 1814. The British troops were quartered mainly in the Jesuit College (Colégio dos Jesuítas), which was then serving as a seminary, and in the convent of the Incarnação; the nuns left for the Convent of St Clare on 7 January 1808. Various works were carried out there to lodge and quarter the British forces suitably, and they did the building considerable damage; the church was turned into an Anglican place of worship. Henrique Calaça’s patriotic and genuinely Catholic foundation was occupied by foreign troops and given over to a heretical cult! For the purpose of enforcing the laws of disentailment (desamortização, the sale of Church property by the State), this convent was valued by order of the government in August 1862, the valuation putting the worth of the building, church, convent grounds, chaplain’s house, etc., at 10,320,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis).

By a ministerial order (portaria) of June 1895, the Incarnação building was provisionally granted for the installation of a workshop of St Joseph, which led a precarious, lingering existence there and lasted only a very short time.

By decree of 11 July 1905, the building, church and convent grounds of the Incarnação were granted to the bishop of this diocese, Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto, so that a house could be built there to accommodate the Diocesan Seminary. The seminary began operating in October 1909 in the vast and handsome building that the illustrious prelate had built at his own expense on the site of the old convent (see Seminary).

The law of 20 April 1911 abolished the seminary of Funchal, and a few years later a School of Useful and Fine Arts (Escola de Utilidades e Belas Artes) was set up in this building; it existed for only a few years (see School of Useful and Fine Arts).

In September 1919 the various departments of the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito) were installed in the building that had housed the Seminary and the School of Fine Arts; the Council had acquired it for this purpose by purchase from the State.

The decree of 25 April 1927 ordered the building of the Incarnação Seminary to be handed over to the Diocesan Commission for Worship, but the General Council stubbornly opposed the handover, which did not take place until October 1933, after a hard-fought struggle of six years. In that year the diocesan seminary, with its many services of classes and boarding for pupils, once again began operating in the building that the eminent prelate Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto had built.

On the foundation of this convent, the reader should consult the booklet published by the Arquivo Histórico da Madeira under the title A Restauração de Portugal e o Convento da Incarnação, Lisbon, MCMXL, 50 pp. The last nun of the convent of the Incarnação, Madre Vicência Violante do Céu, died on 20 April 1890.