St James the Less (church)

The building of the church of São Tiago was decided by the solemn vow (see Vow to Saint James) that the authorities, clergy and people of Funchal made in 1523, when this island found itself ‘posta em muyta tempestade & tribulaçom de peste & fome & outros muytos trabalhos...’ (‘in great tempest and tribulation of plague and famine and many other hardships...’). On 21 July of that year the first stone of the building was laid. A contemporary document records the event, saying that on the ‘bymte & hun dias de julho lhe começarom a sua casa himdo a çidade e o cabido em proçisom solene descalçados & o Mestre schola Gonçalo Martim com o retábulo da imagem do bem auemturado apóstolo & deo a primeira enchadada no cunhall da capella da bamda do abamgelho, a qual casa se edificou em hua terra que Antonio Spindola deo para a dita casa...’ (‘twenty-first day of July they began his house, the city and the cathedral chapter going in solemn procession barefoot, and the Master of the School Gonçalo Martim with the altarpiece bearing the image of the blessed apostle, and he struck the first blow of the hoe at the corner of the chapel on the Gospel side; which house was built on a piece of land that António Espínola gave for the said house...’).

Of this António Espínola, the ‘Island History’ (Historia Insulana) says that he was a native of Genoa and descended from the most ancient families of that city, and that he counted several Doges of that republic among his forebears. ‘King Manuel I granted him a coat of arms and the noble rank (foro de fidalgo) of his household. He held lands granted as sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in Santiago and other places; and by a deed of 30 April 1524 he donated a small plot of land at the edge of the city, on which were built the chapel of Santiago, patron saint of the whole island, the sacristy and churchyard, on condition that members of his family should be buried there, and that the chaplain should ask for an Our Father and a Hail Mary for his soul. The deed was drawn up on parchment and is in the archive of the cathedral chapter (Cabido) of Funchal.’

The church of São Tiago, known today as the church of Socorro (‘succour’), where the seat of the parish (freguesia) of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’) was installed in 1803, is not the original building. Nothing of that first structure remains at present, and it was much smaller than the present church. Some years later it underwent major repairs, and it was blessed by the diocesan bishop, Dom Jerónimo Fernando, on 25 July 1632. A century later, as the chapel had fallen into considerable disrepair, the Funchal Council decided to build a larger church. The old chapel was demolished in 1752, and the works were declared complete in 1768.

When the great flash flood (aluvião) of 1803 swept the church of Our Lady of Calhau (see that entry) into the sea, the Council gave the church of São Tiago to serve as the seat of the parish, on condition that the image of the patron saint and protector of the city should always be kept there. A stone tablet was then placed on the church’s façade, where it still remains, bearing the following inscription: Hic lapis indicat liberalitatem senatus et populi hanc ecclesiam Fidelissimo Principi Regenti offerentium in locum parochiae per inundationem aquarum destructae Anno Domini MDCCCIII (This stone records the generosity of the council and people, who offered this church to the Most Faithful Prince Regent in place of the parish church destroyed by the flood waters, in the year of Our Lord 1803). See Patron saints.