Ornelas e Vasconcelos (Dom Aires de)

Dom Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, who belonged to one of the oldest and noblest families of this island, was born in Funchal on 18 September 1837. He was the son of Aires de Ornelas de Vasconcelas, holder of the entail (morgado), and of Dona Augusta Correia Vasques de Olival.

Having attended secondary classes in this city, where he was an outstanding pupil, he enrolled in 1854 in the faculty of theology of the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) and graduated there in 1859, winning first prize in every year of his course. In 1860 he defended his conclusões magnas (doctoral theses), receiving the doctoral hood (capelo) and the degree of doctor on 29 July of the same year. His inaugural dissertation, written in Latin and later published as a volume, is entitled De Christianae Religionis Origine. Invited to become a professor in his faculty, he resolved to pursue a university career, but later abandoned that intention for reasons unknown to us.

Returning to Madeira already ordained a priest, he was appointed in succession professor at the seminary (Seminário), canon, synodal examiner, dean, vicar general and president of the governing board (junta governativa) of the bishopric. In all these posts he always showed irreproachable conduct and a charming simplicity. As a teacher in particular he revealed a profound knowledge of the theological sciences, and this, together with the way he treated his students, made every pupil an admirer and a friend.

On returning from a visit to Rome, where he had attended the sessions of the Vatican Council, he was proposed by the prelate of this diocese, Dom Patrício Xavier de Moura, as his coadjutor and future successor. He was confirmed as titular bishop of Gerasa in the consistory of 6 March 1871 and received episcopal consecration in Lisbon on 7 May of the same year.

He took over the interim administration of this diocese on 17 May 1871, but only began to govern it definitively on 27 October 1872, after the death of the incumbent bishop. His episcopate lasted only three years and was not free of serious difficulties, created in large part by some turbulent members of the cathedral chapter. Despite his great austerity of character, his zeal for the observance of church discipline, the most upright intentions that guided him in office, and his exceptional talent and profound learning, he was unable to show in his native land the worth of all these enviable qualities. He did so instead in the distant regions of Hindustan, where he displayed so brilliantly his remarkable qualities as a fearless apostle, a reforming spirit, a man of action and a highly cultivated intellect, winning the respect and admiration of millions of people scattered across the vast dioceses of which he was the metropolitan.

By royal letter (carta régia) of 23 July 1874, Dom Aires de Ornelas was presented as archbishop of Goa and Primate of the East, and he was confirmed by Pope Pius IX in the consistory of 19 November of that year. He left Madeira on 25 January 1875, amid the most imposing and affectionate farewell in living memory here. On 27 December of the same year he arrived in Goa and took charge of his vast archdiocese.

We would go too far if we tried to give details of his episcopal administration in the East. His episcopate lasted little more than three years, and in so short a span it would have been impossible to show greater energy and zeal in the exercise of his arduous apostolate. The reform of the seminary, the administration of the church fabrics, the religious dissensions among the various Indian castes, the direction of several charitable institutions, the observance of ecclesiastical discipline, the revival of the religious spirit, etc. etc., all received his special attention, and to these many questions he devoted the best of his ardent zeal and boundless dedication. His rule of the archdiocese of Goa was particularly marked by the pastoral visitation he made to such remote regions of the Portuguese Padroado (Portuguese royal patronage over the Church in the East) in the East, and by the exposition of the body of St Francis Xavier, the great apostle of the Indies. This visitation, made through foreign countries and among peoples so diverse in religion, usage and custom, was a triumph for the archbishop. More than that, it contributed notably to strengthening the prestige of the Portuguese name in the vast regions he travelled through.

The exposition of St Francis Xavier was an event for the whole of India. To the old city of Goa, so lonely and so abandoned, flocked many thousands of visitors from very distant countries, bringing to the capital of the former Portuguese empire in the East a bustle and liveliness it had never seen. It was on this occasion that the archbishop received several bishops, his suffragans, and vicars apostolic, and gathered them in a provincial synod. He then revealed to these members of the higher clergy, some of them of great intellectual stature, the gifts of his intelligence and learning, aided greatly by his knowledge of theology and of the Latin, French and English languages, which he wrote and spoke correctly.

The writings of the illustrious archbishop – pastoral letters, sermons, speeches and reports – show a shepherd full of zeal and self-denial for his flock. They are also models of the purest and most idiomatic Portuguese, with a marked classical flavour, and they both instruct and charm the reader.

It was in his laborious apostolate in India, and especially on his painful and exhausting pastoral visitations, that he contracted the serious illness that forced him to leave his archdiocese. He returned to his native island, arriving on 22 May 1879, and was given perhaps the most affectionate and enthusiastic reception this island has ever prepared for its visitors. After some months of rest he went to France to consult specialists about the illness that tormented him. It grew gradually worse until, on 28 November 1880, he died in Lisbon, in the house of his brother, the illustrious Madeiran Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Agostinho de Ornelas de Vasconcelos.

In 1903 his remains were moved to the chapel of Santo António (St Anthony of Padua) in Funchal Cathedral (Sé), the former family vault of the Ornelas family. (See Obras de D. Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, Porto, 1881, 358 pp.)