Our Lady of Grace (chapels)
Original title: Nossa Senhora da Graça (Capelas de)
Four chapels of Our Lady of Grace, in Porto Santo, Machico, Santa Cruz and Funchal's Sé parish; the octagonal Porto Santo chapel is notable and now ruined.
Abroad
The chapel of Our Lady of Grace (Nossa Senhora da Graça) was one of the oldest on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’). At the beginning of the 19th century, under the auspices of Manuel Inácio de Avelar Brotero, governor of that island, its reconstruction was begun because of its ruinous state, but it was never completed. It must have been of some size, and it is said to have been a miniature copy of a famous sanctuary in Italy. Its peculiarity was an octagonal interior. The walls still stand, partly demolished by the action of time and the vandalism of men.
In the town (vila) of Machico there is a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Grace. All we know of it is that it is quite old and that it was rebuilt by its confraternity in 1750.
A chapel with the same dedication existed in the parish (freguesia) of Santa Cruz (‘Holy Cross’), built in 1520 by Pedro Álvares de Almada.
In the parish of the Sé (Funchal Cathedral), ‘situated beside the Ribeirinho of this city’, the precentor Domingos de Andrade e Alvarenga built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Grace in 1699.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 03Place
Places mentioned · 07- Chapel of Our Lady of Grace · Subject
Porto Santo
Nossa Senhora da Graça is a chapel on Porto Santo, notable for its octagonal form and now ruined. The people processed to it at the order of the 'prophets'. The Elucidário also records chapels of the same dedication in Machico, Santa Cruz and Funchal's Sé parish.
- Italy
Its sanctuary was reputedly the chapel's model.
Italy is referred to in several contexts. It was the place of exile of Bishop D. Francisco José Rodrigues de Andrade in 1834, and it was visited on the 1926 Madeiran pilgrimage. An Italian sanctuary was reputedly the model for the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graça.
- Machico
Town with an old chapel rebuilt in 1750.
The parish of Machico was the landing place of the discoverers Zargo and Tristão Vaz and the seat of the captaincy of Machico; the parish was founded c. 1450. The Elucidário covers its clergy and stipends, chapels, historical events, mineral springs, localities, population and notable natives.
- Porto Santo
Island of the ancient octagonal chapel.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- Santa Cruz
Parish of a chapel of 1520.
Santa Cruz is a parish and one of Madeira's oldest settlements, named after a cross Zarco had raised there at the discovery. The Elucidário covers its early ecclesiastical history, collegiate church, chapels, noble settlers and localities.
- Sé
Funchal. Funchal parish of the 1699 chapel.
The Sé is the central urban parish of Funchal, lying wholly within the city, split from Santa Maria Maior in 1557 and seated in the cathedral; it is the city's commercial, administrative and official heart. The Elucidário records its churches, notable buildings, judicial role as starting point of the eastern comarca, and several notable people born there, and notes that the Bugio belongs to it administratively.
People
People mentioned · 03-
Cathedral precentor who built the chapel near the Ribeirinho in 1699.
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Governor of Porto Santo who promoted the unfinished rebuilding of the chapel in the early 19th century.
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Built the chapel in Santa Cruz in 1520.