Santa Maria (Dom Friar José de)
Original title: Santa Maria (D. Fr. José de)
Biography of D. Fr. José de Santa Maria, a Capuchin friar who was bishop of Funchal from 1690/91 to 1696, known for his pastoral visits, diocesan synod and patient endurance of the captain-general D. Rodrigo da Costa. He was later transferred to the see of Porto, where he died in 1708.
Life and episcopate
This pious bishop of Funchal was the son of Luís de Saldanha, steward (viador) of the household of Queen Luisa de Guzmán, and of Dona Violante de Mendonça. Embracing the monastic life, he entered the Capuchin order, where he was professor of arts and theology and held other important offices besides. Peter II appointed him bishop of this diocese in 1689, and he was confirmed by Pope Alexander VIII on 6 March 1690. On 25 November of that year he received episcopal consecration at the hands of Cardinal de Lencastre.
In March 1691 he entered his diocese and devoted himself entirely to the care of his flock. He visited the parishes of his bishopric several times, despite the roughness of the roads and the difficulty of transport and lodging in the places he travelled through. He was most zealous in ensuring that Christian doctrine was taught, and had a pastoral letter printed in which this matter was regulated and enforced with the utmost rigour. He convened a synod in the diocese, at which serious measures were taken on many points of ecclesiastical discipline that had long fallen into disuse.
Dom Friar José de Santa Maria was of a resigned and kindly disposition, and he bore with true Christian humility the high-handedness and vexations of the captain-general (capitão-general, military governor of Madeira) Dom Rodrigo da Costa. Besides his irascible and despotic temperament, Dom Rodrigo enjoyed the open protection of his relatives, who belonged to the highest nobility and held the loftiest offices in the nation.
After a short episcopate of five years, he requested and obtained his transfer, and in recognition of his great merits and virtues he was placed in one of the principal sees of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal). Transferred to the bishopric of Porto, he died there in the odour of sanctity on 26 October 1708, according to Dom António Caetano de Sousa.
He left Madeira on 15 September 1696, the day on which he relinquished the episcopal administration of this diocese.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 04-
King Pedro II nominated Fr. José de Santa Maria bishop of Funchal. Pope Alexander VIII confirmed the appointment on 6 March 1690, and he was consecrated by Cardinal de Lencastre on 25 November 1690.
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Bishop D. Fr. José de Santa Maria arrived in his diocese of Funchal.
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Bishop D. Fr. José de Santa Maria left Madeira and relinquished the administration of the diocese.
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D. Fr. José de Santa Maria, former bishop of Funchal, died in Porto as its bishop.
Place
Places mentioned · 03
Abroad
- Funchal
See of the diocese he governed.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Porto
Portugal. Diocese to which he was transferred and where he died.
A Portuguese city, where the 1820 liberal revolution began and whose district is the only one denser than Funchal's. Several Madeirans studied at its medical school or Academia Politécnica, and some lived or died there. The editor of O Funchalense Liberal was hanged there, and Marítimo beat FC Porto there in 1922.
People
People mentioned · 09- D. Fr. José de Santa Mariad. 1708
Capuchin friar who was bishop of Funchal (1690–1696) and later bishop of Porto, where he died in 1708.
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Pope who confirmed the bishop's appointment on 6 March 1690.
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Historian cited as the source for the bishop's date of death.
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Cardinal who consecrated the bishop on 25 November 1690.
- D. Rodrigo da Costad. 1722
Captain-general of Madeira whose despotic treatment the bishop endured with humility, according to the Elucidário.
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Father of the bishop; steward (viador) of Queen D. Luísa de Gusmão's household.
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Queen of Portugal in whose household the bishop's father served.
- Peter IId. 1706
King of Portugal who nominated the bishop to Funchal in 1689.
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Mother of the bishop.