António (or Antônio) Vieira (; 6 February 160818 July 1697) was a Portuguese
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
,
diplomat
A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
,
orator
An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
Etymology
Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14 ...
,
preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...
,
philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...
, and member of the Royal Council to the
King of Portugal
This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portugal, Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution.
Thro ...
.
Biography
Vieira was born in
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
to Cristóvão Vieira Ravasco, the son of a
mulatto
( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...
woman, Maria de Azevedo. In 1614 he accompanied his parents to the
colony of Brazil, where his father had been posted as a registrar.
He received his education at the
Jesuit college at
Bahia
Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...
. He entered the Jesuit
novitiate
The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
in 1625, under Father Fernão Cardim, and two years later pronounced his first
vows. At the age of eighteen he was teaching rhetoric, and a little later dogmatic theology, at the college of
Olinda
Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state ca ...
, besides writing the "annual letters" of the province.
In 1635 he was ordained to the priesthood. He soon began to distinguish himself as an orator, and the three patriotic sermons he delivered at Bahia (1638–40) are remarkable for their imaginative power and dignity of language. The ''
Sermon for the Good Success of the Arms of Portugal Against Those of Holland'' was considered by the
Abbé Raynal to be "perhaps the most extraordinary discourse ever heard from a Christian pulpit.
When the revolution of 1640 placed
John IV on the
throne
A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign (or viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory ...
of Portugal, Brazil gave him her allegiance, and Vieira was chosen to accompany the viceroy's son to Lisbon to congratulate the new king.
His talents and aptitude for affairs impressed John IV so favorably that he appointed him tutor to the Infante Dom Pedro, royal preacher, and a member of the Royal Council.
Vieira did efficient work in the War and Navy Departments, revived commerce, urged the foundation of a national bank and the organization of the Brazilian Trade Company.
Vieira used the pulpit to propound measures for improving the general and particularly the economic condition of Portugal. His pen was as busy as his voice, and in four notable pamphlets he advocated the creation of companies of commerce, denounced as unchristian a society which discriminated against New Christians (Muslim and Jewish converts),
called for the reform of the procedure of the Inquisition and the admission of
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and foreign traders, with guarantees for their security from religious persecution. He argued to the king that Jewish merchants would benefit the kingdom, remedying its current "miserable state."
He did not spare his own estate, for in his
Sexagesimal
Sexagesimal, also known as base 60, is a numeral system with 60 (number), sixty as its radix, base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified fo ...
sermon he boldly attacked the current style of preaching, its subtleties, affectation, obscurity and abuse of metaphor, and declared the ideal of a sermon to be one which sent men away " not contented with the preacher, but discontented with themselves."
In 1647 Vieira began his career as a diplomat, in the course of which he visited England, France, the Netherlands and Italy. In his ''Papel Forte'' he urged the cession of
Pernambuco
Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...
to the Dutch as the price of peace, while his mission to Rome in 1650 was undertaken in the hope of arranging a marriage between the heir to the throne of Portugal and the only daughter of
King Philip IV of Spain. His success, freedom of speech and reforming zeal had made him enemies on all sides, and only the intervention of the king prevented his expulsion from the
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...
, so that prudence counselled his return to Brazil.
In his youth he had vowed to consecrate his life to the conversion of the African slaves and
native Indians of his adopted country, and arriving in
Maranhão
Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...
early in 1653 he recommenced his apostolic labors, which had been interrupted during his stay of fourteen years in the Old World. Starting from
Pará
Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...
, he penetrated to the banks of the
Tocantins
Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 2014 ...
, making numerous converts to Christianity and European civilization among the most violent tribes; but after two years of unceasing labour, during which every difficulty was placed in his way by the colonial authorities, he saw that the Indians must be withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the governors, to prevent their exploitation, and placed under the control of the members of a single religious society.
Accordingly, in June 1654 he set sail for Lisbon to plead the cause of the Indians, and in April 1655 he obtained from the king a series of decrees which placed the missions under the Society of Jesus, with himself as their superior, and prohibited the enslavement of the natives, except in certain specified cases. Returning with this charter of freedom, he organized the missions over a territory having a coast-line of 400 leagues, and a population of 200,000 souls, and in the next six years (1655–61) the indefatigable missionary set the crown on his work. In August 1659, he signed the
Treaty of the Mapuá with various indigenous groups on the
Marajó Archipelago. After a time, however, the colonists, attributing the shortage of slaves and the consequent diminution in their profits to the Jesuits, began actively to oppose Vieira, and they were joined by members of the secular clergy and the other Orders who were jealous of the monopoly enjoyed by the company in the government of the Indians.
Vieira was accused of want of patriotism and usurpation of jurisdiction, and in 1661, after a popular revolt, the authorities sent him with thirty-one other Jesuit missionaries back to Portugal. He found his friend King John IV dead and the court a prey to faction, but, dauntless as ever in the pursuit of his ambition, he resorted to his favorite arm of preaching, and on Epiphany Day, 1662, in the royal chapel, he replied to his persecutors in a famous rhetorical effort, and called for the execution of the royal decrees in favor of the Indians.
Circumstances were against him, however, and the
Count of Castelo Melhor, fearing his influence at court, had him exiled first to
Porto
Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...
and then to
Coimbra
Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of .
The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...
; but in both these places he continued his work of preaching, and the reform of the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...
also occupied his attention. To silence him his enemies then denounced him to that tribunal, and he was cited to appear before the Holy Office at Coimbra to answer points smacking of
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy.
Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
in his sermons, conversations and writings. He had believed in the prophecies of a 16th-century shoemaker poet,
Bandarra, dealing with the coming of a ruler who would inaugurate an epoch of unparalleled prosperity for the church and for Portugal, these new prosperous times were to be called the Quinto Império or "
Fifth Empire" (also called "Sebastianism"). In Vieira's famous opus, Clavis Prophetarum, he had endeavoured to prove the truth of his dreams from passages of Scripture. As he refused to submit, the Inquisitors kept him in prison in Coimbra from October 1665 to December 1667, and finally imposed a sentence which prohibited him from teaching, writing or preaching.
It was a heavy blow for the Jesuits, and though Vieira recovered his freedom and much of his prestige shortly afterwards on the accession of
King Pedro II, for example it is known that, in 1669, in Lisbon,
Cosimo III de Médici had the opportunity to talk several times with Antònio Vieira and to attend his famous
masses. However, it was soon determined that he should go to Rome to procure revision of the sentence, which still hung over him though the penalties had been removed. During a six years' residence in the Eternal City, Vieira won his greatest triumphs.
Pope Clement X invited him to preach before the College of Cardinals, and he became confessor to
Queen Christina of Sweden
Christina (; 18 December O.S. 8 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 8 December1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Monarchy of Sweden, Queen of Sweden from ...
and a member of her literary academy.
At the request of the pope he drew up a report of two hundred pages on the
Inquisition in Portugal, with the result that after a judicial inquiry
Pope Innocent XI
Pope Innocent XI (; ; 16 May 1611 – 12 August 1689), born Benedetto Odescalchi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 21 September 1676 until his death on 12 August 1689.
Political and religious tensions with ...
suspended it in Portugal for seven years (1674–81). Ultimately, Vieira returned to Portugal with a papal bull exempting him from the jurisdiction of the grand inquisitor, and in January 1681 he embarked for Brazil. He resided in Bahia and occupied himself in revising his sermons for publication, and in 1687 he became superior of the province. A false accusation of complicity in an assassination, and the intrigues of members of his own Company, clouded his last months, and on 18 July 1697 he died in
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador () is a Municipalities of Brazil, Brazilian municipality and capital city of the Federative units of Brazil, state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is recognize ...
.
Legacy
António Vieira is considered one of the literary greats of the Portuguese-speaking world.
The Padre António Vieira Chair in Portuguese Studies, at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica-Rio de Janeiro was created on 7 October 1994, to train teachers and researchers in the social sciences. Promoting academic exchanges between Brazil and Portugal, the Chair's main aim has been to deepen the cultural dialog that already exists between the two countries within the university context. The Chair is involved in the training of teachers in the areas of Portuguese Literature and Culture, Portuguese Language, and Lusophone Literatures.
In 1997 Portugal issued a commemorative coin to mark the 300th anniversary of the death of Father Vieira.
Portugal issued a stamp in 2008, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Vieira's birth (1608). Brasil has issued already two Vieira stamps, in 1941 and 1997.
A
statue of Father António Vieira by the sculptor Marco Fidalgo, was unveiled on the Largo Trindade Coelho near the church of São Roque in 2017, on the initiative of the Holy House of Mercy of Lisbon, Portugal.
Works
His works form perhaps the greatest monument of
Portuguese prose. Two hundred discourses exist to prove his fecundity, while his versatility is shown by the fact that he could treat the same subject differently on half a dozen occasions. His letters, simple and conversational in style, have a deep historical and political interest, and form documents of the first value for the history of the period.
His principal works are:
*''Sermões'' (Sermons) (15 vols., Lisbon, 1679–1748); there are many subsequent editions, but none complete; translations exist in Spanish, Italian, German and French, which have gone through several edition
Archive*''
História do Futuro'' (History of the Future) (Lisbon, 1718; 2nd ed., ibid., 1755); this and the Quinto Império and this Clavis Prophetarum seem to be in essence one and the same book in different redactions
*''Cartas'' (Letters) (3 vols., Lisbon, 1735–46)
*''Notícias recônditas do modo de proceder a Inquisição de Portugal com os seus presos'' (News on how the Portuguese Inquisition proceeds with its prisoners) (Lisbon, 1821)
*''Arte de Furtar'' (The Art of Stealing) published under Vieira's name in many editions; is now known not to be a work by him
A badly edited edition of the works of Vieira in 27 volumes appeared in Lisbon, 1854–58. There are unpublished manuscripts of his in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
in London, and in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. A bibliography of Vieira will be found in
Sommervogel
Carlos Sommervogel (8 January 1834 – 4 March 1902) was a French Jesuit scholar. He was author of the monumental ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', which served as one of the major references for the editors of the Catholic Encyclo ...
, Bibliothèque de la compagnie de Jesus, viii. 653–85.
''The Complete Works of Father António Vieira'', annotated and updated, began publication in 2013, nearly four centuries after his birth. The 30 volumes of this publication comprise his complete letters, sermons, prophetic works, political writings, writings on Jews and Indians, as well as his poetry and theatrical works; it is the first complete and carefully edited publication of all of Vieira's many writings. One of the largest editorial projects of its kind, it was the result of international cooperation among various Luso-Brazilian research institutions and scientific, cultural and literary academies, under the aegis of the Rectory of the
University of Lisbon
The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...
. More than 20 thousand folios of manuscripts and printed pages attributed to Vieira were analyzed and compared, in dozens of libraries and archives in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, England, Holland, Mexico and in the United States of America. About one quarter of ''The Complete Works'' are made of previously undiscovered and unreleased texts. The project, directed by
José Eduardo Franco and
Pedro Calafate, was developed by
CLEPUL in partnership with
Santa Casa da Misericórdia
Santa Casa da Misericórdia is a charitable institution whose mission is to treat and support the sick, the disabled, and orphans. Founded in Lisbon in 1498 by Queen Leonor of Portugal, the institution grew into a network of charitable organizat ...
, and published by
Círculo de Leitores, with the final volume to be released in 2014. Although this is a Portuguese edition, a selection of his works will be made available in 12 languages as part of the project.
Quotations
"We are what we do. What we don't do, doesn't exist. Therefore, we only exist on days when we do. On the days when we don't do, we simply endure".
"The end for which men invented books was to preserve the memory of past things against the tyranny of time and against the forgetfulness of man, which is an even greater tyranny."
"Holland, is the land which flows with milk, and Brazil is the land which flows with honey; and when the one is joined to the other, they become wholly and properly the Land of Promise, a land flowing with milk and honey."
See also
*
Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish
References
Publications
* Robert Southey, ''History of Brazil'' (Volume Two, London, 1817)
* Luiz Cabral, ''Vieira, biographie, caractère, éloquence'', (Paris, 1900)
* Luiz Cabral, ''Vieira pregador'' (two volumes, Porto, 1901)
External links
History of Brazil (Volume Two) Longman – 1817*
*
Manuscripts versions of ''Clavis Prophetarum'' (XVIII) in the Historical Archive of the Pontifical Gregorian University*
ttps://archive.org/details/episdiosdram02baiuoft Dramatic episodes of the Portuguese Inquisition, v. 1, the case of Father Antonio Vieira, page 205 onwards, author Antonio Baião
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vieira, Antonio
1608 births
1697 deaths
Clergy from Lisbon
Portuguese philosophers
Portuguese diplomats
Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries
Sermon writers
Portuguese colonization of the Americas
17th-century Portuguese Jesuits
17th-century philosophers
Jesuit missionaries in Brazil
Jesuit philosophers
Baroque writers