Mário Emílio de Morais Sacramento (7 July 1920 – 27 March 1969) was a Portuguese

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

that became famous for his

antifascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

activities against the dictatorial regime led by

Oliveira Salazar Oliveira may refer to: People * Oliveira (surname) * Oliveira (footballer, born 1981), full name Ederaldo Antonio de Oliveira, Brazilian football goalkeeper * Oliveira (footballer, born 1985), full name Bruno Giglio de Oliveira, Brazilian footba ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. Sacramento was born in

Ílhavo Ílhavo (), officially the City of Ílhavo (), is a city and municipality located in the Aveiro District of central Portugal. The population in 2021 was 39,239, in an area of 73.48 km2. The Municipality of Ílhavo includes four parishes and t ...

Aveiro District Aveiro District (, ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Porto District to the north, ...

and studied medicine in

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 ...

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 ...

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 finally graduated in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He started his writing activity very soon and became a regular contributor to several newspapers and magazines, such as "''O Diabo''" (The Devil), "''Sol Nascente''" (Rising Sun), "''Vértice''" (vertex) or the "Diário de Lisboa" (Lisbon Daily). Sacramento also published several essays about Eça de Queiroz, Moniz Barreto,

Cesário Verde Cesário Verde (25 February 1855 – 19 July 1886) was a 19th-century Portuguese poet. His work, while mostly ignored during his lifetime and not well known outside of the country's borders even today, is generally considered to be amongst the mo ...

Fernando Namora Fernando Namora (15 April 1919 – 31 January 1989), with the full name Fernando Gonçalves Namora was a Portuguese writer and medical doctor. Namora was born in Condeixa-a-Nova, Coimbra District and died in Lisbon, Portugal. He received his me ...

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (; ; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, and publisher. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th c ...

, that made him become a respected person among the Portuguese intellectuals. Due to his intellectual activities and Anti-fascist and democratic feelings, Sacramento soon developed connections to the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

, at the time, the only organized resistance movement against the dictatorship. Because of that he became a member of the Central Commission of the youth wing of the

Movement of Democratic Unity The Movement of Democratic Unity () was a quasi-legal platform of Portuguese democratic organizations that opposed the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and was founded in October 1945. The defeat of the Fascist regimes in World ...

(Portuguese: Movimento de Unidade Democrática - Juvenil or MUD), the only opposition movement "allowed" by the regime, that congregated almost all those who were against the dictatorship. There, he developed his political activities and became famous among the democratic resistance. He was one of the main organizers of the 1st and 2nd Republican Congresses in Aveiro, congresses that in a somewhat secret way, set important guidelines to the anti-fascist struggle, and was honored in the 3rd, that was only carried out after his death. Sacramento was arrested a total of five times by the political police, the

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

. The first time was in 1938, when he was a member of the students union in a high school in Aveiro. Nowadays, Mário Sacramento is one of the most well-known persons of Aveiro, and his name is present in several places like schools, streets and avenues.

References

«Mário Sacramento, La vie et l'Oeuvre», These de Doctorat, Sorbonne, DEC. 2002» octors degree thesis, in Sorbonneby Eunice de Almeida Malaquias Vouillot : {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacramento, Mario 1920 births 1969 deaths People from Ílhavo Portuguese male writers Portuguese Communist Party politicians Portuguese anti-fascists University of Paris alumni 20th-century Portuguese writers