Varela (Canon Dr António Vicente)

He was born in the parish (freguesia) of Ponta do Sol (‘point of the sun’) on 10 November 1854 and died in this city on 12 December 1903. He attended the lyceum (state secondary school) and seminary of Funchal and was ordained priest in 1881. In 1886 he completed his degree in theology at the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra), and by royal letter (carta régia) of 29 March 1900 he was appointed canon of our Cathedral (Sé Catedral). He taught at Funchal Seminary (Seminário do Funchal), was deputy for this archipelago in the legislative session of 1892–1893 and president of the Administrative Committee (Comissão Administrativa) of the Holy House of Mercy (Misericórdia) of Funchal, and carried out other public service duties.

Dr Varela was a highly cultivated mind, a tireless worker and an ardent fighter, but also a restless and extremely impressionable spirit, at times violent and irascible, above all as a journalist. This earned him the ill will of many, so that he had to wage bitter campaigns and even suffer penalties imposed by his ecclesiastical superiors.

He founded several newspapers, almost all of them short-lived. Among them O Latego stands out for the violence of its language and its attacks on the ecclesiastical authorities, which Dr Varela later sincerely regretted.

Without being a remarkable journalist, he wrote with such astonishing ease that it amazed people. He published in book form: A suspensão do professor da Escola Municipal da Ponta do Sol, Manuel José Varela, 1888, 52 pp.; Ultimas observações dum sentenciado. Resposta á critica do reverendo padre Pacheco..., 1889, 127 pp.; A guerra do Sr. D. Manuel Agostinho Barreto à confraria de Nª S.ª do Monte do Carmo, 1891, 137 pp., which appeared anonymously; and Victima da Rolha. A Decapitação do «Latego»..., 1891, 282 pp., which was also published anonymously.