José Galamba de Oliveira (4 February 1903 – 25 September 1984) was a Portuguese

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest, teacher, and historian of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima.

Biography

José Galamba de Oliveira was born in Aldeia-Nova, Olival, in

Ourém Ourém (, ), formerly known as Vila Nova de Ourém, is a municipality in the district of Santarém in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 45,932, in an area of 416.68 km2. The municipality of Ourém contains two cities: Ourém (about 12,000 ...

, in 1903, the son of José Joaquim de Oliveira and Cecília da Conceição Galamba, merchants. He did his primary schooling in Olival, then entered the Patriarchal Seminary in Santarém in 1914. He studied at the

Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private university, private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyo ...

in Rome, achieving a doctorate in Philosophy in 1922 and a bachelor's degree in Theology and Canon Law, He returned to Portugal for his health in 1924, and finished his theological studies in 1926 at the Leiria Seminary. He was ordained priest in the Cathedral of Leiria on 11 July 1926, celebrating his First Mass in the

Sanctuary of Fátima The Sanctuary of Fátima (), or Shrine of Fátima, also known as Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima (), is a group of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church religious buildings and structures located in Cova da Iria, in the Freguesia, civil parish an ...

on 13 July. He taught at the Seminary and other schools in Leiria. He was active in the ''Acção Católica'' movement,

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

, and in the regional press. He was the founder of the weekly religious newspaper ''A Voz do Domingo'' (1933), writing about the mission of the Church, the defense of Christian values and principles and other topics. In 1943, he was appointed

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of the Cathedral of Leiria, and

Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

in 1983. His life had an intimate connection to the 1917 apparitions of

Our Lady of Fátima Our Lady of Fátima (, ; formally known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fátima) is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus, based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portu ...

. He was familiar with

Cova da Iria Cova da Iria is a quarter in the city and civil parish of Fátima, in Portugal. Most of the reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children from the town took place here in 1917. This neighborhood is considered a ...

since the age of 4 or 5, as he was the nephew and godson of the

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

, Father Manuel Joaquim de Oliveira. In 1917, he learned about the apparitions through Father Manuel Nunes Formigão at the Santarém Seminary; and was present with a group of other seminarians on the day of the fifth apparition, on 13 September 1917. When he returned to Portugal in 1924, he witnessed the construction of the

, where he celebrated his first Mass following his ordination in 1926; in 1928 he penned an account of the pilgrimage and ceremonies of the laying of the foundation-stone of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, for ''

L'Osservatore Romano ''L'Osservatore Romano'' is the daily newspaper of Vatican City which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not an official publication, a role ...

''. He sought to study and disseminate the 1917 apparitions of

and its message through articles, essays and works ("''Fátima à prova''", 1946; "''Jacinta''", "''História das aparições''"). He was a close friend of the visionary Lúcia dos Santos and was part of a small group of people who could visit her in the Carmel of Coimbra without prior authorization from the Holy See. He accompanied the image of the Pilgrim Virgin to North America (1947–48) and was national president of the

Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima, now mostly known as the World Apostolate of Fátima, is a public international association that has as its general purpose "the promotion of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and the strict adhe ...

. He founded the ''Escola de Formação Social Rural de Leiria'' (Social Rural Training School in Leiria) in 1956 and was its director for nearly three decades. One of his last major initiatives was the organisation and editorial direction of a monumental Illustrated Bible, in 7 volumes (1957–1974). During the "

Ongoing Revolutionary Process The Ongoing Revolutionary Process (, PREC) was the period during the Portuguese transition to democracy starting after a failed right-wing coup d'état on 11 March 1975, and ended after a failed left-wing coup d'état on 25 November 1975. Thi ...

" period that followed the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

in 1974, Galamba played an important role in the anti-communist resistance in the

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

region. He died on 25 September 1984, at the age of 81, in Marrazes, Leiria.

Distinctions

National orders

PRT Order of Prince Henry - Grand Officer BAR

Grand Officer of the

Order of Prince Henry the Navigator The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...

(13 March 1967)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galamba de Oliveira, Jose 1903 births 1984 deaths 20th-century Portuguese people 20th-century Portuguese Roman Catholic priests Canons (priests) Our Lady of Fátima People from Ourém Grand Officers of the Order of Prince Henry