St Lawrence (chapels)
Original title: São Lourenço (Capelas de)
Describes three chapels dedicated to São Lourenço in Madeira: one in the São Lourenço fortress in Funchal, one in the parish of Fajã da Ovelha, and one in Camacha, the latter two later serving as parish churches.
Chapels of São Lourenço
In the Fort of São Lourenço (‘St Lawrence’) there was a chapel dedicated to the martyr St Lawrence. It is quite old and already existed in 1566, the year in which French corsairs sacked the city. It had its own chaplain, and the oldest royal decree (alvará) we have found appointing that chaplain is dated 15 November 1641. We have seen somewhere that on 3 October 1846 Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro ordered an inventory of the silver objects belonging to this chapel, which weighed 36 pounds, and had them deposited in the Central Treasury. A new inventory was made on 3 December 1856, with further pieces added, the whole weighing 65 pounds of silver. In 1856 the chapel’s vestments were given to the church of Achadas da Cruz (see the São Lourenço Palace).
The chapel of St Lawrence in the locality (sítio) of the same name in the parish (freguesia) of Fajã da Ovelha (‘the ewe’s flat’) is quite old, for in the first years of the 16th century it was already the seat of a chaplaincy (capelania), which later became a parish. It served as the parish church until the middle of the 18th century, when the new church was built. An old tradition records that this chapel belonged to the Afonsos Jardins, who were among the earliest settlers there and owners of the lombada (long ridge between valleys) on which the chapel stands.
In the parish of Camacha there was a chapel dedicated to St Lawrence, said to have been built by Francisco Gonçalves Salgado. It was of quite old construction, and in 1676 the seat of the new parish was established in it, so that it became the parish church; its patron saint is still that of the original chapel.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 05-
French Huguenot corsairs under Montluc, guided by Gaspar Caldeira, landed at Praia Formosa and sacked Funchal, storming the fortress of São Lourenço, profaning the cathedral and the Santa Clara convent, whose nuns fled to the Curral; Gaspar de Braga died resisting them. The attack, during the captaincy of Francisco Gonçalves da Câmara, prompted new coastal fortifications.
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Padre José da Costa de Lima was appointed first chaplain of the chapel of the São Lourenço fortress, the earliest known such warrant.
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The parish of Camacha was created and separated from Caniço, with its seat in the São Lourenço chapel, being definitively constituted in 1680.
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José Silvestre Ribeiro ordered an inventory of the silver of the São Lourenço chapel, weighing 36 pounds.
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The vestments of the São Lourenço chapel were given to the church of Achadas da Cruz.
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A new inventory of the São Lourenço chapel recorded 65 pounds of silver.
Place
Places mentioned · 05- São Lourenço · Subject
Calheta. Locality where the Fajã da Ovelha chapel of São Lourenço stands.
Locality in the parish of Fajã da Ovelha where the chapel of São Lourenço stands. The chapel was the first parish seat.
- Achadas da Cruz
Porto Moniz. Its church received the fortress chapel's vestments in 1856.
Achadas da Cruz is a small parish in the far north-west of Madeira, in the municipality of Porto Moniz; it grew from a sixteenth-century chapel and became an independent parish in 1848. It was transferred between municipalities several times: to Porto Moniz in 1835, briefly to Calheta in 1849–55, and to Calheta again when Porto Moniz was abolished in 1895. Its flat is the smallest plateau, with a crater-like lagoon 66 m across; free-ranging cattle and Euphorbia mellifera are found there. Other records include the benefactor Manuel de Pontes Câmara and the wreck of the yacht Varuna in 1909.
- Camacha
Santa Cruz. Parish founded in 1676 with its seat in the São Lourenço chapel.
Camacha is an upland parish above Caniço in Santa Cruz municipality, founded in 1676 with its seat in the São Lourenço chapel. The Elucidário covers its church, role in the 1828 Miguelist invasion, quintas, levadas, the Poiso shelter house, its Pentecost pilgrimage, women's padded skirts, its plants and gardens, and its famous wickerwork industry started by Hinton.
- Fajã da Ovelha
Calheta. Parish whose first parish church was the São Lourenço chapel.
Fajã da Ovelha is a parish in the municipality of Calheta, western Madeira. It grew from the chapel of São Lourenço, and its new church was built in the 18th century. It is watered by the old Rabaçal levada, contains the Pico da Fonte do Bispo in its uplands, and is noted for producing some of Madeira's best peaches.
- Fortress of São Lourenço
Funchal. Housed an old chapel dedicated to São Lourenço.
The São Lourenço fortress in Funchal was begun as a simple bastion under the fourth and fifth captains-donatary and completed by the reign of D. Sebastião; its main entrance faces the Largo da Restauração. It later served as a palace and housed the Funchal meteorological station, and the republican flag was raised there on 6 and 7 October 1910. The Elucidário also records its heraldic emblems, a 1635 inscription, an old chapel of São Lourenço and the loss of its statue of the saint in 1911.
People
People mentioned · 02-
Said to have built the São Lourenço chapel in Camacha.
- José Silvestre Ribeiro1807–1891
Councillor and civil governor who in 1846 ordered an inventory of the fortress chapel's silver and its deposit in the Cofre Central.