St Mary Magdalene (chapels) 1The Madalena chapel in Santo António
St Mary Magdalene (chapels)
Original title: Santa Maria Madalena (Capelas de)
Describes the chapels dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene in Madeira: the ruined Manueline chapel at Madalena in Santo António parish (Funchal), one at Florenças in Arco da Calheta, and an old chapel in Porto Moniz that serves as a curacy seat and pilgrimage centre.
1The Madalena chapel in Santo António
Anyone leaving Funchal along the Caminho de Santo António (‘St Anthony’) will come upon, at the roadside some two kilometres from the city centre, the ruins of an old, dilapidated chapel. From that heap of rubble the ruined façade still rises proudly, as if defying the fury of the centuries. Its pointed-arch doorway reveals its antiquity and the character of the buildings of an age of glory. It is one of the few vestiges of the Manueline style that still survive on this island.
This is the chapel of Santa Maria Madalena, which gave its name to the locality (sítio), more commonly known by the popular shortened form of Madalena (‘Magdalene’). After St Maurus, it is the oldest chapel in the parish (freguesia) of Santo António. We lack, however, the precise information needed to determine when it was founded, which does not seem to us to be later than the first quarter of the 16th century. The earliest reference to it that we have found dates from 1593, the year in which it received the grant of a quit-rent (foro). After the aforementioned chapel of St Maurus, it was also the most important in that parish for its antiquity, its size and its architectural style, and also for the devotion the faithful showed to its patron saint. It even came to own property of its own, of some importance, for the maintenance of its worship, something we are not aware that any other chapel in this parish possessed.
By a public deed of 11 March 1684, José Machado de Miranda took on the role of patron of this chapel. He had it rebuilt and endowed it with a quit-rent of four thousand réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a year, charged on the Quinta das Maravilhas. Major repairs were carried out on it in 1732, 1766 and 1773, but by 1820 it was already far gone in ruin.
2Chapels at Arco da Calheta and Porto Moniz
In the locality (sítio) of Florenças, in the parish (freguesia) of Arco da Calheta (‘arc of Calheta’), there was a chapel of the same dedication, founded by João Portes Homem de El-Rei and his wife Dona Maria de Sousa in the year 1684. The chapel of Santa Maria Madalena in the parish of Porto Moniz (‘Moniz’s harbour’) is one of the oldest in the north of Madeira. Over the years it has undergone various repairs and additions, and today it is a chapel of no small size. It was enlarged in 1789 and was extended once more only a few years ago. It once held a fine oil painting of its patron saint, which was not properly looked after and has been lost entirely. It may be said to be the seat of the parish’s curacy (curato), and beside the chapel stands a residence intended for the assistant priest (coadjutor) of the curacy. There is a cemetery close by.
It is the centre of an old and well-attended pilgrimage, held in July every year, and in former times a fair was held there at which a great deal of livestock was brought.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 05-
The earliest known record of the Madalena chapel dates from this year, when a quit-rent was donated to it.
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João Portes Homem founded the chapel of Santa Maria Madalena at Florenças, Arco da Calheta.
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José Machado de Miranda became patron of a Madalena chapel and had it rebuilt.
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Major repairs were carried out on the Madalena chapel in 1732, 1766 and 1773.
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The Magdalene chapel at Porto Moniz was enlarged.
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The Madalena chapel was by then already well advanced in ruin.
Place
Places mentioned · 10- Chapel of St Mary Magdalene · Subject
Funchal
The Capelas de Santa Maria Madalena are the chapels dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene in Madeira. They are the ruined Manueline chapel at Madalena in Santo António parish, Funchal; one at Florenças in Arco da Calheta; and an old chapel in Porto Moniz that serves as a curacy seat and pilgrimage centre.
- Arco da Calheta
Calheta. The parish containing Florenças.
Arco da Calheta is a parish in the municipality of Calheta, created in 1572 around the chapel of São Brás, whose church holds sixteenth-century paintings. The Elucidário covers its early settlers such as the Andrades, sugar estates, chapels, entails, unrest in 1834 and 1887, and irrigation by the Rabaçal and Pico da Urze levadas.
- Caminho de Santo António
Funchal. The road beside which the ruined chapel stands.
The road beside which the ruined chapel stands.
- Chapel of St Maurus
Funchal. The only chapel in the parish older than the Madalena chapel.
The only chapel in the parish older than the Madalena chapel.
- Florenças
Calheta. Site of a Magdalene chapel founded in 1684.
Florenças is a picturesque, populated sítio named after the Florença family and the site of their entailed estate. It has chapels of Nossa Senhora das Mercês and of the Magdalene, the latter founded in 1684, and Lombo das Mercês is incorporated into it.
- Funchal
The city from which the road to the ruined Madalena chapel starts.
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.
- Madalena
Funchal. The locality named after the chapel.
Madalena is a sítio named after its chapel of Santa Maria Madalena. It has a primary school, and its processions brought donations to the asylums.
- Porto Moniz
The parish with one of the oldest Magdalene chapels in northern Madeira.
North-western parish and municipality with a quay and a tolerable port that serves as a good landing when southerly winds close the south coast. It has one of the oldest Magdalene chapels in northern Madeira, whose feast falls on 22 July. It was the birthplace of Dr Manuel Gomes Jardim.
- Quinta das Maravilhas
Funchal. The estate on which the chapel's 1684 endowment was charged.
Quinta das Maravilhas is an estate in Funchal that gave its name to Rua das Maravilhas. A chapel of Nossa Senhora das Maravilhas stood there in 1657, and the 1684 endowment of a Magdalene chapel was charged on it.
- Santo António
Funchal. The parish containing the Madalena chapel.
Santo António is a parish in the municipality of Funchal, Madeira, where the São João stream rises and the Jesuits had their Pico do Cardo residence. Its church bears a 1783 Latin inscription, and the parish contains the Madalena, São João e Santana and Pópulo chapels; it also gives its name to a hill of about 400 metres near its church.
People
People mentioned · 03-
Co-founder, with his wife, of the Magdalene chapel at Florenças, Arco da Calheta, in 1684.
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Became patron of the Madalena chapel in 1684, had it rebuilt and endowed it with an annual quit-rent charged on the Quinta das Maravilhas.
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Wife of João Portes Homem de El-Rei and co-founder of the Florenças chapel in 1684.