Patron saints

From a strictly religious point of view, every diocese has its own special patrons, and that of Funchal could not have departed from this praiseworthy custom, or rather obligatory precept, which is followed everywhere and always marked by fervent devotions on particular days of the year. It is well known that this diocese has as its first and chief patron the apostle St James the Less, and as lesser patrons St Sebastian and St Roch; and that, since 1803, the city of Funchal and its surroundings have been solemnly consecrated to the protection of Our Lady of the Mount (Nossa Senhora do Monte). The ecclesiastical calendars published every year for the private use of the various churches and chantries (capelas) mention the two lesser patrons on 20 January and 16 August of each year.

For centuries the first of May has been solemnly celebrated on this island, and especially in this city. Long before the workers had dedicated that day to commemorating the assertion of their rights, and before the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) had resolved to adopt the first of May as the municipality’s annual public holiday, the feast of the apostle St James the Less, which the Church celebrates on the first of that month, was already solemnly observed here. The day was kept as a holy day; the feast of the patron saint was celebrated in the church that is the seat of the parish of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’); and, above all, there was a splendid procession that set out from the Cathedral (Sé Catedral) and made its way to that church.

These festive commemorations had their origin in solemn vows made by our forebears, which the generations that succeeded them always fulfilled with the most devout commitment over a long period of almost four centuries. At present, this ancient and traditional commemoration is reduced to the feast held on the first of May in the Cathedral and the small procession that goes round the same church (1921).

Gaspar Frutuoso writes that ‘in the year 1521, when King Manuel died, there was a great mortality from plague in Funchal, from which God deliver us; and because it had been in the city for years, Captain Simão Gonçalves and the Council chose by lot as Patron of the said city the Apostle St James the Less, at the end of which they built him a fine house, to which they went in procession.’ This event is narrated in greater detail in the record (auto) of the vow of 1523, which reads: ‘.... on the eleventh day of the month of June of one thousand five hundred and twenty-one, this city being in great storm and tribulation of plague and famine and many other hardships, it was agreed in the Council by its officers, who were then Pero João Correia, councillor, and Vicente Gonçalves and Pero Álvares, judges, and the bachelor João de Sousa, purveyor, and the guild representatives, to take a roll of the saints, namely the name of Jesus our Lord and of the Virgin Our Lady, St John the Baptist and the twelve apostles, each by his own name; they put them in a cap, and the lot was drawn by a small boy named João, seven years of age, all first kneeling in prayer and promising to build a house in honour of whichever saint should come out; and by lot there came out the blessed apostle St James the Less, in whose honour a feast was held at once that same day throughout the city; and on the twenty-first day of July they began his house, the city and the said Chapter going in solemn procession barefoot, with the Master of the School, Gonçalo Martins, bearing the altarpiece with the image of the blessed apostle; and he struck the first blow of the hoe at the corner of the chapel on the Gospel side, which house was built on a piece of land that António Spínola gave for the said house...’

On 24 January 1523 the vow was renewed with full solemnity in the Cathedral (the Sé). Present were the captain-donatary (capitão-donatário), Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, the Senate (senado, the municipal council) with its councillors (vereadores), various officials, the whole cathedral chapter and a great many people. All of them solemnly undertook, on behalf of the inhabitants of this municipality (concelho), ‘for ever, in each and every year of the world, to venerate and celebrate the feast of the said glorious saint and apostle, which is the first day of May, on which they shall hold a solemn procession, which shall leave the cathedral of the said city solemnly and go to the said house of the blessed saint, where they shall hold solemn vespers for him; and the same shall be done on the eighth day, with solemn mass and procession, which processions shall be held like that of the Lord’s Corpus Christi itself; and it further pleased the said citizens to have the said saint painted in the council chamber, on the banner and on the seal of the city, just as St Vincent is borne on the banner of the city of Lisbon; and the aforesaid vowed this into the hands of the said dean, to fulfil it all themselves and through their successors, and in witness and faith of the truth thereof they signed here...’

From the work Alma Instruida by Father Manuel Fernandes, the annotator of the Saudades transcribes the following passage: ‘And they soon recognised the Saint’s protection on this occasion; but they came to know it more fully in the year 1538, when a terrible plague was raging. During the procession, the Chief Health Officer, then a man of great standing, said in a loud voice in the middle of the Saint’s chapel: “Lord, until now I have guarded this City as best I could; I can do no more. Here is my staff: be Thou the Guardian of Health.” And he at once laid down his staff and considered himself released from the duty of guarding the City; and from that moment all the stricken grew better, and there was not a single further case of plague. From this comes the custom of the Council, as soon as it enters the church of Socorro (‘succour’), of laying down their staffs on the steps of the high altar.’

On 22 June 1632 a new record (auto) was solemnly drawn up before the Funchal Senate (senado, the municipal council), intended to display and confirm the gratitude of the Madeirans to their patron saint, St James the Less. After a reference to the plague of 1538, it contains the following words:

“

Never again has the said evil (plague) been on this island. Rather, it is true that, although many ships came to this island with men stricken by this evil, who were sent into penal exile (degredo) on the beaches outside this city, where some of them at times died of the said evil, it never entered nor took hold among the people of the land. And God Our Lord has miraculously defended us many times and on many occasions from being attacked by enemies, as happened at the time of the disturbances in this Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal), when many fleets came towards this island, of which we had particular warnings from His Catholic Majesty; some of them came within sight of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), and all were miraculously turned away by storms and other unexpected events.

The same record deals with the raid that the Moors made on Porto Santo in 1617, ‘seizing the island and carrying off all its people into captivity’; it was considered a miracle of the saint that those pirates did not come to Madeira. It also alludes to the fact, likewise held to be miraculous, that during the octave of St James, or before or after it, ‘some ship with grain’ never failed to ‘enter this island’. ‘In the year 1632, says the record, the land being in such straits, with poor harvests. . . , there entered, by a particular royal grant of God, through the intercession of the glorious saint (for so all must believe), during the octave of his feast, into the landing place of this city, from the northern parts whence we least expected it! more than 1000 moios of grain, by count made, which came to avert the danger that threatened everyone of famine being felt in Madeira.

It is further recorded in the same document that, to show the gratitude of the Madeirans for the protection so often granted by their patron St James the Less, it was resolved to ask ‘the most illustrious and most reverend Bishop Dom Jerónimo Fernando, who at present is governor and captain-general. . . to be pleased to consecrate the church of the same patron.’

We must record here that in 1942 the Council of Funchal resolved to revive the traditional homage paid to the glorious patron saint and to join in it festively, also ordering the old vows made by the Funchal Senate in past times to be published in a pamphlet. It moved its municipal holiday to 21 August and decreed that the first day of May should be specially devoted to paying due homage to the patron saint of the city. This decision was well received by the whole population and does great honour to the body that took it.

The flash flood (aluvião) of 9 October 1803 caused many deaths and enormous material damage in Madeira, which greatly alarmed our people. On 13 November of the same year, therefore, Bishop Dom Luís Rodrigues Vilares, the cathedral chapter (Cabido) and the rest of the clergy met in the choir of the Cathedral to implore divine protection for this island. It was resolved ‘by unanimous agreement’, as we read in a record drawn up on that occasion, ‘to celebrate a most solemn festival on the 9th day of the month of October each year in honour of the patronage of the Most Holy Virgin, Mother of God and of sinners, taking her as protector and special advocate before Our Lord Jesus Christ, her only-begotten Son, to obtain from Him in the first place a general pardon for all our sins, and in the second the suspension of the punishment with which He justly wished to chastise us, so that this city may not again find itself in so lamentable a crisis; on that same day the office of the patronage of the same Most Holy Virgin shall be recited with first-class rite, and a most solemn procession shall be held, attended by His Excellency the Bishop, the Chapter and the rest of the secular and regular clergy, as is customarily done at the feast and solemnity of our most amiable and most devout patron saint, St James the Less; for which the necessary licences of the Prince Regent, Our Lord, and Briefs of the Holy Apostolic See shall be sought; the procession shall go from this cathedral church to the chancel of the aforesaid church of Our Lady of Calhau (Nossa Senhora do Calhau), which was thrown to the ground, should it be preserved in memory of this fatal calamity, and, should it not survive, to the new church that is to be built, where solemn vespers shall be sung in the presence of the Chapter and Clergy, and Mass shall be celebrated on the said 9th, with a sermon, in which this dreadful night shall be commemorated, so that the peoples and future generations may always remember the fate with which we were punished, and the powerful intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, in whom we take refuge so as not to suffer a second punishment and to be preserved from similar calamities.’

The procession referred to in the record, which we have partly transcribed above and which was published in full in no. 159 of the Correio da Madeira (‘Madeira Courier’) of 8 October 1922, still takes place today, but only around the Cathedral (1921).

In connection with the same procession, a meeting of the nobility and people was held on 11 November of that year, 1803, in the building of the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal). Its purpose was to consider a letter from the diocesan prelate, addressed to the juiz de fora (crown-appointed judge from outside the district) on the 9th of the same month, ‘concerning the proposed vow that he wishes to be made of an annual procession and festival of the patronage of Our Lady on 9 October each year, so that all the people of this colony may merit the protection of the Mother of God and may not suffer a repetition of the punishment it endured with the flood and flash flood of the said 9th...’. It was decided unanimously that the nobility and people should conform to the prelate’s intention, although this resolution was to remain suspended until the Prince Regent had pronounced on it’. After the flash flood of 9 October 1803 (vol. I, p. 54), the diocesan bishop, chapter, clergy and faithful placed the island, and especially the city, under the protection of Our Lady of the Mount. This was confirmed by an Apostolic Rescript of Pius VII dated 21 July 1804, and the feast of the Patronage of Our Lady of the Mount was then instituted. It was celebrated on 9 October each year, with a solemn procession that went from the Cathedral to the parish church of Santa Maria Maior. The ninth of October was formerly a holy day of obligation, preceded by its own vigil with fasting.