St John the Evangelist (college and church)

In the article Jesuits we have already given a brief account of the establishment of the Society of Jesus and of its presence on this island until it was expelled by order of the Marquis of Pombal, that is, from 1570 to 1760, a period of 190 years (volume II, page 186).

For some time the Jesuits lived in houses adjoining the chapel of St Sebastian, in the street of that name, now called Praça do Comércio (volume II, page 359). There they held divine worship and taught their courses in the humanities and theology. They later moved to the church and hospice (albergaria) of St Bartholomew (volume I, page 70), which stood in Rua Direita (‘straight street’), a street that then ran along the left bank of the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’) as far as the present-day Ponte do Torreão (‘turret’).

These religious acquired the open square where the College (Colégio) church and the barracks of the 27th Infantry Regiment (infantaria n.º 27) stand today (1921), and settled there in modest lodgings with a small church attached. We conjecture that they moved there in the last years of the 16th century. Construction of the great college and the magnificent church must have begun towards the end of the first quarter of the 17th century, as appears to follow from a manuscript of the mid-18th century. This agrees, moreover, with the following words of the learned annotator of Dr Gaspar Frutuoso: ‘We have searched in vain in the building and church of the Jesuit college in Funchal for an inscription recording when they were built: we found only, above the outer door of the classroom courtyard, which belongs to the same college... the date 1619... The vault of the chancel has traces of an architectural design that is still Manueline. The crossing, the nave and the carved woodwork of the chapels are in the bastard taste of the Renaissance. The building work was carried out, it seems, slowly and would only have been regarded as finished around the middle of the 17th century, apart from certain details of ornamentation that would have been definitively completed later still, such as the placing of the statues on the church façade, the decoration of some chapels, etc.

The Jesuits held this church and college until 16 July 1760, when, on the orders of the Marquis of Pombal, they left Madeira under arrest. For some years all the premises of the college and the church remained closed. Then, by a royal letter (carta régia) of 10 August 1787, Maria I ceded these buildings to the bishop, Dom José da Costa Tôrres, so that the Diocesan Seminary could be established there. This educational establishment was formally opened on 31 March 1788.

The Seminary did not remain there long, because the occupation of Madeira by British troops in 1801 forced that house of education to move to the old building in the New Convent (Mosteiro Novo) street. The Jesuit College (Colégio dos Jesuítas) was turned into barracks and occupied by part of the British garrison. When the British troops left, the College was vacated, and in 1803, at the time of the terrible flash flood (aluvião), it housed countless people who had been left homeless.

The College had also been occupied by some Portuguese military forces. The governor and captain-general, Dom José Manuel da Câmara, refused to withdraw them, as the bishop, Dom Luís Rodrigues de Vilares, demanded, so that the Diocesan Seminary could be reinstalled there. This refusal, together with other circumstances, gave rise in 1803 to a serious conflict between the governor and the prelate, as has already been briefly related on page 216 of this volume. Although the diocesan bishop emerged victorious from this conflict and his right to possession of the College and its premises was recognised, the Seminary certainly never returned there. The College continued to be used to quarter troops and to house various public offices.

From 1808 to 1814, during the second occupation of this island by British troops, the College once again served as their quarters, and for some time Major-General Beresford had the seat of his government of the island there. From that time to the present, the old Jesuit College has always served as barracks for the troops of this city’s garrison.

After the members of the Society of Jesus left this island in 1760, the church of São João Evangelista was closed to the public, and for many years no services were held in it. It is possible that while the Seminary occupied the building next to the church, the church was restored to religious use. We have seen it mentioned somewhere that the British troops attended Protestant services there, and that the church was placed under interdict as a result. We cannot state this with complete certainty.

When Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro took over the government of this district in 1847, the College church was in an advanced state of ruin, and Catholic worship had long since ceased there. It was solely thanks to his persistent efforts that the church underwent major repairs and was returned to religious service, which has continued without interruption to the present day.

A manuscript held in the Public Library of Porto, cited in the Historia da Egreja em Portugal by Fortunato de Almeida, contains some interesting information about the foundation of various colleges and churches established by the Jesuits. A distinguished friend of ours who lives in the city of Porto undertook to make some extracts from this manuscript relating to the college of São João Evangelista in Funchal, and we reproduce them below:

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Its church is rich and majestic, adorned and furnished with precious ornaments in all its chapels and altars, with many pieces of the finest silver. It is 95 palmos long and 54 wide. The nave consists of four large chapels, which are 18 palmos deep and 21 wide; two of these, which lie beneath the choir, have the same depth and differ only in width, being just 15 palmos wide. It has its transept, which is 80 palmos long and 38 wide; the two chapels, or niches, beside the high altar are 10 palmos deep and the same in width; and the chancel is 32 deep and 23 wide. ‘All these chapels have their founders or confraternities, as follows. The niche on the Gospel side next to the chancel is consecrated to the Virgin Our Lady under the dedication of Nossa Senhora da Luz (Our Lady of Light). For this reason its feast and adornment were entrusted to the Confraternity of our Students, who attend or have attended those classes for some years, for this noble and devout brotherhood embraces all who studied in them. This most holy Lady is venerated and visited in her image by the whole of that city, being the object of very special devotion.

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The corresponding niche on the Epistle side is likewise dedicated to the same Lady, under the title of Succour. Its founders were Canon João de Saldanha and his brother, the beneficed cleric (beneficiado) Joseph de Saldanha, both most devoted to our Society and distinguished benefactors of that Royal College. On the two sides of the transept there are also two chapels facing each other. The one on the Gospel side is consecrated to Jesus Crucified and is cared for by the noble Brotherhood of the Stations of the Passion (passos, wayside oratories depicting scenes of Christ’s Passion) of the same Lord, which exists in that city. The corresponding one on the Epistle side is dedicated to Our Lady under the dedication which the city and island call ‘of the Second Condition’. ‘In the nave, the first chapel on the Gospel side is dedicated to the Holy Eleven Thousand Virgins; its founder was Simão Nunes Machado. The second, consecrated to the Archangel St Michael, was founded by the Reverend Father Miguel Pereyra, a very great benefactor of that college. On the Epistle side, the first is that of the Apostle of the East, St Francis Xavier, which was founded and endowed by the Licentiate Bento de Mattos. The second is that of St Anthony of Padua, and its founders were Doctor António Spínola, a famous physician in that city, and his wife Dona Francisca de São Paio, whom this college also counts among its distinguished benefactors. Of the two chapels beneath the choir, Father António Franco says that at the time he was writing they still had no founders, although they were adorned at the college’s expense. However, on enquiring of some religious who had lived in that college and celebrated Mass in its church, I learned that the chapel on the Epistle side was dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Nossa Senhora da Conceição), and that its founder had been one António de Oliveyra, a native of this kingdom and of the town of Pombal, who had married Maria da Rocha on that island. Having no children, they founded the chapel and gave all their property to it. In one of the clauses of their joint will and grant, the said António de Oliveyra declared that, should he die before his wife, she would be bound on the day after his death to go and hear Mass for his soul in his aforesaid chapel of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception; and he bound himself to do the same should his wife die first. He did and declared this in order to do away with the custom and abuse wrongly prevailing in that city, whereby those in mourning did not leave the house for a whole year, not even to hear Mass on feast days and holy days of obligation. Of the other chapel beneath the choir, facing this one, I am told that it is very well adorned, for the church has very sumptuous revenues; but when I wrote this I found no one who could tell me whether it had any founder or confraternity.

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I wrote the account of this chapel according to the information given to me by Jesuits who had lived in that college; but afterwards I received the letter from Father José Lopes already mentioned, in which he tells me the following: “In a chapel of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which, although adorned by António de Oliveyra Baptista, has no founder, nor has it yet been purchased or endowed, even though the said man and his wife Maria da Rocha left it their thirds [of their estates], the amount of which is not yet known, since no inventory has been made.” After this was written, Father Lopes informed me in a letter of 10 March 1751 that the said chapel is consecrated to St Quiteria and has its own confraternity of that holy Virgin and Martyr. ‘The frontispiece and main façade of this church, which is magnificent and the finest on the whole island, was adorned with four marble statues of ordinary human size, representing St Ignatius, our founder and patriarch, St Francis Xavier, St Francis Borgia and St Stanislaus. The Reverend Father Manoel Lobo had them made by an expert sculptor at the Court in Lisbon; but they arrived on the island and were set in place after the rectorship of the Reverend Father José Lopes had already begun.

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The whole building of the College consists of five corridors, and the entire work is laid out in a magnificent quadrangle, which also takes in the Church. The corridor of the Porter’s Lodge is ninety-four palmos long; the one the College calls the Great Corridor, three hundred and fifty; that of the Library and the College’s inner Chapel, two hundred and twenty-eight; the Corridor known as the Eyrado [Terrace], one hundred and sixty-two; and that of the Lavatory, two hundred and forty-six. All of them are of the same width, sixteen and a half palmos, and twenty and a half in height. Many people of this Island have at various times granted great favours and donations to this our College, and so the number of its distinguished Benefactors is large. Dona Helena de Vasconcelos gave two contos for the building of the main Chapel, which she chose as her family vault and burial place, and that of her two cousins and sisters-in-law, Dona Brites da Silva and Dona Isabel da Silva, who gave the College more than four contos under the obligation of certain pious bequests. They also gave the sacristy of the Church various pieces of gold and silver. With this, and with the donations of the other benefactors of its Chapels, the Church became the best endowed of those we see in this Province, and so it is seen adorned with great richness and neatness. The dowry of this College was assigned by its most august Founder on the revenues of His Royal Customs House; but, as the years went by, it was changed to the Tithes of three parishes near Ribeira Brava, which are the most important share of its dowry and subsistence.

To complete this information on the College of the Society of Jesus in Funchal, we transcribe the following notes, published in the former newspaper A Justiça:

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The founder of the main chapel was Dona Helena de Bettencourt e Vasconcellos, wife of António de Andrade e Silva, and she endowed it with good revenues, as did her sisters-in-law Dona Brites and Dona Isabel da Silva, daughters of Martim Gonçalves de Andrade and Dona Maria de Brito. All three were buried in that chapel, and on the stone slab under which they rest one can still read today: Tomb of Dona Helena de Bettencourt, founder of this chapel, and of her cousins and sisters-in-law Dona Brites da Silva and Dona Isabel da Silva, distinguished benefactresses of this Church and College. In 1654 Simão Nunes Machado and his wife Dona Joana Telo made a grant of property to the chantry (capela) of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. In 1682 Father Miguel Pereira, who lies there, as can be seen from the inscription on his tombstone, also gave property to that of St Michael. Property was given to that of St Anthony by Dr António Spínola Teixeira and his wife Dona Francisca, a native of Coimbra. António de Oliveira, a native of Condeixa, and his wife Maria Rocha also gave property to that of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.

The Jesuits had taken possession of the chapel of St Sebastian and the adjoining houses, where they first settled, on 6 May, the day on which the Church commemorates the martyrdom inflicted on St John the Evangelist, from which he miraculously emerged unharmed. In memory of that fact, the religious gave the college and church the name of the exile of Patmos.

The architect and painter of the building was an Italian from Tuscany whose name we do not know, and the chief sculptor was called Brás Fernandes. See Município (square).