Faial (parish)

The parish takes its name from the faia (Myrica Faya). There was once a locality (sítio) there where this member of the Myricaceae grew in abundance; it took the name faial, which later spread to the surrounding land and eventually to the whole parish. Referring to the origin of the name, Frutuoso says that this parish (freguesia) bears it because a great many faias grow there. One might perhaps say of this parish, allowing for the difference in scale, what António Cordeiro says in ‘The Island Epic’ (Insulana) of the island of Faial: ‘it was called Faial because the said island was entirely full of many large faias’.

The lands that made up this parish and those of Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’) were the first on the north side to be worked and settled in the days of the earliest colonisation. One of the oldest settlers was Lançarote Teixeira, fourth son of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, the first donatary of Machico, whom the Saudades praise as follows: ‘he was one of the finest horsemen of the island; for besides being by inclination a very good rider, he had a great hand at breaking horses and was much given to it, so much so that in his time sixty knights with gilded spurs gathered in the town of Machico, very well turned out and mounted through the efforts of this Lançarote Teixeira, so that when St John’s Day or Corpus Christi came round, there were so many horsemen for the cane games (jogos de canas, equestrian tournament with thrown canes) and skirmishes that it looked more like an army at war than a festive pastime; and though all were very skilled in this art, he nonetheless stood out among them, so that it may rightly be said that he was the light and ornament of Machico’. This Lançarote Teixeira held much land in Faial by sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation), including the lands stretching from Ribeiro Frio (‘cold brook’) to Ribeira da Metade (‘halfway stream’) and taking in the Penha de Águia (‘eagle crag’), and there he founded a numerous line of descendants.

The parish originated in the settled estate (fazenda povoada) that existed there, with its chantry (capela) dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin, or Nossa Senhora do Faial (Our Lady of Faial), which served as the seat of the new parish. Father João Soares was chaplain of this chapel from 1531, having previously been a beneficed cleric (beneficiado) in our African stronghold of Asilah.

When the royal decree (alvará régio) of 20 February 1550 created this parish, this priest was appointed its first parish priest, with an annual stipend (côngrua) of 6,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), in addition to the 8,000 réis he already received as chaplain of the chapel. The royal decrees of 30 May 1572 and 20 June of the same year raised the vicar’s annual salary to 20,000 réis and 25,000 réis respectively, and the decree of 15 November 1591 set his stipend at 19,000 réis in cash and one and a half moios (dry measure of grain, 60 alqueires) of wheat. Later, by royal decree of 17 April 1780, this salary was raised again, to 22,000 réis in cash, two moios of wheat and two pipas (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine. As stated, Father João Soares was the first vicar of this parish; he was succeeded in turn by Fathers Bernardo de Quintal, Sebastião Gonçalves, Cristóvão Ferreira, Francisco José, Valentim José, Pedro Catanho de Meneses, etc.

The growth of the population led to the creation of a curacy (curato), authorised by the royal decree of 11 February 1746. Father Pedro Catanho was the first to hold this post, with an annual salary of one and a half moios of wheat and one and a half pipas of wine.

The chapel of Nossa Senhora do Faial, which became the seat of the parish, stood on the left bank of the stream and in the harshest winters was often in danger of being swept away by the violence of the current. In 1699, through the efforts of the vicar of the time, Father Manuel Catanho de Meneses, a wall was ordered to be built to protect the church. This did not prevent the waters, which some years later grew more torrential, from almost entirely destroying the old chapel, so that a new church had to be built as a matter of urgency.

This need had long been recognised, not only because of the danger to which the chapel’s site was exposed whenever the torrent swelled and flooded the land along its banks, but also because of the chapel’s cramped size and the advanced state of ruin it had long been in. We do not know whether the following passage, which we found in volume X of the Santuario Marianno by Friar Agostinho de Santa Maria, refers to the old chapel or to the new church: ‘the church, very large and of great length and breadth, is nevertheless said to have been timbered entirely with the wood yielded by a single cedar trunk, a sign that it must have been very large or enormous, which was found close to that same chapel of Our Lady...’ Elsewhere we also found a certain detail of construction, but referring to the old chapel, as the author of the Santuário Marianno himself seems to suggest at the end of the passage we have quoted. By order of the Treasury Council (Conselho da Fazenda) of 20 November 1744, the building of the new church was granted by award by public auction (arrematação) to Cristóvão Gomes for the sum of 7,980,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis). The church was put up on the slope above the stream, safe at last from the headlong violence of the current. The first stone was laid and blessed on 5 August 1745; it is not known when the building work was declared complete. It is a spacious and elegant church with excellent carved woodwork, the high altar standing out for the refined good taste of its workmanship. A papal brief of 30 August 1785 granted a plenary indulgence to those who visit this church at the feast of its patron saint, held on 8 September, the day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin.

This parish also had the chapel of São Roque (St Roch), which became the seat of a new parish in 1848, and the chapel of São Luís, of which not a trace remains. There is still the chapel of Our Lady of the Peña de Francia (Nossa Senhora da Penha de França), in the locality (sítio) of Diferença (‘difference’). We shall deal with all of them elsewhere in this work.

Dr Gaspar Frutuoso, writing about this parish in 1590, says the following: ‘This parish will have some hundred households (fogos, literally ‘hearths’). The church stands between two streams with very high rock walls. It has much citrus fruit, citrons and lemons; pears, apples of two kinds, and walnuts. The church being of good size, they say it was timbered from one enormous cedar trunk found close by. On its feast day, which falls on the eighth of September, people gather in pilgrimage from the whole island, more than eight thousand souls, and a rich fair of provisions is held there, with much pork, beef and kid, the last of which is an exceptionally tasty meat on that island, although in many other lands and islands it is the worst of all. Many young goats and fruits and other things to eat are brought together there for the pilgrims to buy; and they often stay two, three or more days at Our Lady, resting from the labour of the road, for they come ten and twelve léguas over very rugged country. Together they hold many festivities of plays, dances and music on many instruments – violas, guitars, flutes, rebecs and bagpipes; and on the lower slopes of the streams, which have great open fields, on Our Lady’s day and during its octave, the pilgrims camp in various bands, lighting great bonfires among those mountains. They say that Our Lady appeared there where her church stands.

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This parish has two sugar mills (engenho), one belonging to António Fernandes das Covas, which is near Our Lady, and another belonging to Luís Doria. At the end of the streams (which both come together at a sea landing) there is a good landing place. In this parish there is a water-powered saw, which was a great and profitable contrivance: two or three men bring up to the saw, by machinery, a trunk twenty palmos long and two or three wide, and by skill a single man, the sawyer, with one foot alone (as the potter does when he makes his ware), drives the trunk forward while the saw keeps cutting; and when it reaches the end with the cut, with the same foot he pushes back, making the whole trunk return, and the saw takes up another cut. So whoever sees this work will judge the water saw a very great and necessary invention on that island, where it would not be possible to saw such great trunks as there are there with a hand saw, nor so great a quantity of planking as is made for sugar chests, of which many are made, and for other chests for other uses, which comes to a very great sum each year. This parish has great upland commons (montados) for livestock, profitable to many.

Even at present this church is the object of a well-attended pilgrimage on 7 and 8 September each year. After the great pilgrimages of Our Lady of the Mount, of the Milagres at Machico and of the Lord Jesus (Senhor Jesus) at Ponta Delgada (‘slender point’), it is one of those that draw the greatest crowds of pilgrims from every part of the island, and it offers the observer one of the most interesting and picturesque sights. Frutuoso’s testimony shows that it is quite ancient and has always been remarkably well attended, and so it has remained through several centuries.

One of this parish’s most pressing needs, and the subject of long-standing demands, was the building of bridges to link it with the neighbouring parishes and with the south of the island. The hopes of the people of that region were met in 1904, when work began on that truly remarkable undertaking, which was entirely completed within a few years.

The parish has a small landing place and a quay built at Pedra da Pescaria, from which the quay took its name. Adolfo Loureiro’s work Os portos maritimos de Portugal e Ilhas Adjacentes contains the following: ‘The design of this quay was drawn up by Mr J. Maria Fragoso and carried out from 1903 to 1905. The Viscount of Cacongo generously contributed the sum of 1,000,000 réis (the Portuguese money of account before 1911; 1,000 réis = 1 mil-réis, 1,000,000 réis = 1 conto) to this work, on which 5,478,000 réis was spent.’ The District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito), which had ordered the quay to be built, resolved at its session of 21 June 1904 to name it Cais do Visconde de Cacongo, granting a request made to it by the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of Sant’Ana.

The parish is bounded by the parish of Sant’Ana and the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the parish of São Roque do Faial to the south, that of Porto da Cruz to the east and that of Sant’Ana to the west. Its inhabited localities are Guindaste, Pico do Guindaste, Covas, Igreja, Tajal, Lombo do Lourenço, Chicharos, Diferença, Fazenda, Pinheiro, Corujeira de Baixo, Corujeira de Cima, Ressoca, Serra de Água, Água de Alto, Quebrada, Lombo do Galego, Pico do Lombo do Galego, Fajã da Murta, Alhendros, Limoeiro, Cruzinha, Fajã Grande, Lombo de Cima, Lombo de Baixo, Lugar, Longueira, Moinhos, Penha de Águia and Fajã, and there are other, less important localities, such as Pedregal, Cerrado, Fajã do Mar, etc. Picturesque spots commanding wide views include Vigia, Cortado, Portela, Cova da Roda, Penha de Águia, Ponta de Catarina Pires, etc.

In 1848 the present parish of São Roque do Faial was separated from Faial, and it has been an independent parish ever since.

Natives of this parish include Dr João Catanho de Meneses and Dona Joana de Castelo Branco (see those entries).