Porto Santo (parish)

Because of its small area and small population, the island of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) has always formed a single parish (freguesia). It has borne, and still bears today, the name of Our Lady of Pity (Nossa Senhora da Piedade), the patron saint of its parish church. Although Frutuoso stated in 1590 that the patron saint and name of the parish was the Salvador (the Saviour), the truth is that documents earlier than that date already give the patron saint as Our Lady of Pity, and we believe it was never any other.

Just as in the seats of the captaincies of Funchal and Machico the parishes were created only some years after colonisation began, the same must have happened, with all the more reason, on the island of Porto Santo. A chaplain would certainly have carried out the ecclesiastical and parochial duties there until the island was constituted as an autonomous parish.

The year of its creation is not known, but it must be roughly contemporary with the first parishes established in Madeira.

The oldest instrument we have found cited in the General Index of the former Royal Treasury Office (Provedoria da Real Fazenda) is the royal decree (alvará régio) of 3 January 1529, which assigned the parish priest an annual salary of 11,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) in cash, four moios of wheat and two pipas of wine. By this time the collegiate church had already been established; besides the parish priest, it had a curate and four beneficiaries. The curacy (curato) was created by the royal decree of 27 August 1589, with a salary of 20,000 réis a year.

The first vicar of this parish of whom there is any record was Father Nuno Vaz, who seems to have begun his ministry in 1572. He was followed as parish priests by João Cordovil de Couto, Manuel Calaça, Jerónimo Vieira, Father Siebra, Dr Manuel Lopes da Silva, Dr Inácio Manuel da Silva, Dr Estêvão Lomelino de Vasconcelos, Domingos Ferreira de Agrela and Baltasar de Andrade, who served until the end of the 17th century.

We believe that the seat of the parish was established in the chapel of Our Lady of Pity, which already stood there before the parish was created. It underwent various repairs and extensions, and was completely rebuilt around 1667. Nothing remains of the original building except the so-called chapel of the Morgada, which belonged to an old Baião family. It still keeps its pointed arch, which, since some of the stones forming it were somewhat damaged, was rendered with a cement coating a few years ago! No church in the diocese ever suffered so many profanations and outrages as this one, owing to the raids that corsairs made on that island from time to time. As there were no defences of any kind there, the inhabitants thought only of taking refuge on the Pico do Castelo (‘castle peak’) and in other safe places whenever they sensed the pirates approaching, leaving them a free hand to carry out their work of destruction and plunder. In 1617 Porto Santo was invaded by Algerian corsairs, and the mother church (igreja matriz) was sacked and set on fire; the same happened again in 1667, after which the church was rebuilt. In 1556, 1690 and 1708 it was not Moors but French ships fitted out as privateers that attacked the island and thoroughly plundered it, the parish church again being a target of the attackers’ fury. It should be remembered that in those times French ships were protected by high-ranking personages – some even claim by the kings of France themselves. These ships often roamed the seas as pirates, committing the gravest crimes with impunity, slaughtering and robbing defenceless settlements. Such was the case with the French invasion of Madeira in 1556, as we shall see in its proper place.

Besides the parish church, this parish has the chapels of the Misericórdia (Holy House of Mercy), St Catherine, Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit) and St Peter, of which we give a brief account elsewhere.

The main localities (sítios) of Porto Santo are: Vila, Casinhas e Pico, Serra de Fora, Serra de Dentro, Pedregal and Esmoitadas, Camacha, Farrobo, Areias, Tanque, Matas and Lombas, Fontinha, Pedras Pretas, Campo de Baixo, Campo de Cima and Ponta.