Convent of Our Lady of Ransom

This convent began as a house for women living in retreat, with no religious character and no observance of canonical rules for its inmates. It was founded in 1654 by Gaspar Berenguer de Andrade and his wife, Dona Isabel de França Andrade. In 1658 the founders turned this house into a religious recolhimento (religious retreat house for women), whose residents submitted to a rule or statute modelled on those of certain monastic houses. Finally, by a royal decree (alvará) of 1663, confirmed in 1665 by Pope Alexander VII, this recolhimento was raised to a monastery of the First Order of St Clare (Santa Clara), of severe and strict observance, and so it remained through the ages until the moment of its suppression. We have read somewhere that the founder was granted the right of patronage over this convent, undertaking to endow it with one hundred and sixty thousand réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) every year, an obligation attached to the entailed estate (morgadio) of Lombo do Doutor (‘the doctor’s ridge’), in the parish (freguesia) of Calheta. For the period in which it was made, this endowment seems to us greatly exaggerated; today it would correspond to a very considerable sum.

If the Convent of St Clare was no model of rigid observance of its rules, it can nevertheless be said that the convent of Mercês gave the most vivid and eloquent example of the practice of all the Christian virtues, carried to the most heroic austerity and to severe and unceasing penance. It was a true cenacle of prayer, seclusion and sacrifice, to which those who went there gave themselves up willingly, seeking, as in a harsh and remote desert, complete withdrawal from the world and from all its coveted and enchanting attractions. Some nuns of this monastery won a reputation for great virtue, notably Mother Brites da Paixão, to whom we shall devote a separate article in its proper place.

The original building, which was a modest structure and remained so until its demolition, nevertheless underwent some major repairs over the years, especially in 1746 and 1752, when the sum of 1,200,000 réis was spent, already a considerable amount for that period. It was demolished in 1911.

On the origins of the foundation of this convent, ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) includes, on p. 591 and following, an interesting legend that deserves to be read as a record of the state of mind of that age.