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Portuguese Saints: St Teotónio to St Nuno

TEOTÓNIO R DE SOUZA
Local News Go
So many factors go into canonisation. In future, one can’t rule out a St Salazar, says TEOTÓNIO
R DE SOUZA

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The first Portuguese saint, St Teotónio, was the spiritual founder of the Portuguese nation in the 12th
century. He figures in the Portuguese liturgical calendar that was used in Goa when I was born – 18
February. I owe my Portuguese brand of spirituality to him. He was the first abbot of the Holy Cross Abbey in
Coimbra. He introduced in Portugal the Augustinian hermit spirituality. Unlike the sing-song spirituality of the
Benedictines that permitted the rich feudal lords from northernmost Portugal to watch / hear the mass in the
private chapels attached to their mansions and without having to leave their beds, the new spirituality
brought tougher rituals that served well the wars of the re-conquest of central and southern Portugal from
the Moor occupation.
It was a spirituality that provided legitimacy to the “just war” against the Moor, to the Crusades, and to
Portuguese ‘discoveries’. One might even call it a Christian version of ‘jihad’.
The founder-king D Afonso Henriques was pleased with the Augustinian monks of Coimbra and rewarded
them handsomely with benefices. It is recounted in national histories that Abbot Teotónio was kneeling in
prayer while D Afonso Henriques was engaged in battles to capture the important towns of Santarém and
Lisbon. We are also told that the influence the abbot had on the new king allowed him to redeem many
captives and restore to liberty many Muslims.
However, the main motive for the canonisation of Abbot Teotónio had little to do with his patriotic actions. It
was his active collaboration in extending the Church reform initiated by Pope Gregory VII to Portugal. The
immediate successors of King Afonso would pay dearly for this with excommunications and the resistance of
the defiant clergy.
Incidentally, the so-called ‘Catholic Portugal’ has a history of anti-clericalism, and there were many prolonged
periods when it had no relations with the papacy. The Portuguese monarchy was proud of its
‘Padroado’ (crown patronage of the church) in Asia and fought to maintain it at all costs, because it was a
useful political tool to win the sympathies of the native people as co-religionaries. Even Republican Portugal,
which cut its ties with the Church, refused to abandon its Padroado rights.
The most recent saint to be canonised, on the 24th of the last month, was a military strategist of Portugal
who saved his country from a Castillian attack in 1385. Known as the Victory of Aljubarrota, it was a turning
point in the history of Portugal. It turned Portugal once and for all away from inward politics and towards the
sea. It was the beginning of the Portuguese expansion to the Atlantic islands, and later to Africa and Asia.
It could be interesting to analyse why the patriotic role of this military saint was loudly proclaimed by the
anti-clerical politicians of the first Portuguese republic in 1910. The present-day republicans hardly reacted to
the news of canonisation. The Church authorities in Portugal tried to play down this muted response.
Fortunately for the Church, the President of the Republic did not fail to exalt the virtues of the new
Portuguese saint, presenting him as a model to the Portuguese defence forces, and to all Portuguese citizens
in times of national crises. He pointed out that the saint opted for a retired religious life as a Carmelite,
instead of benefiting from the highest military title that was bestowed upon him by King John I. He spent his
vast resources in erecting two major national monuments of Portugal.
Following the death of his wife and daughter, he retired to the convent he himself had erected. It reminds
me of the Emperor Ashoka after the bloody battle of Kalinga. He converted to Buddhism and became a great
promoter of Buddhism across Asia. It is not known, however, if he returned to the rightful owners any of the
booty of his bloody victory.
The vocal opponents of the canonisation of Nuno Santa Maria Alvares Pereira wondered how someone who
had murdered nearly 30,000 Castillians could be entitled to sainthood. They asked if the God of the
Portuguese disliked his Castillian faithful [http://tinyurl.com/cgju3f].
God may be quite unaware that the Portuguese Cardinal José Martins Saraiva did a good patriotic job. Even
after crossing the retirement age, he held on to his office in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints until
Pope Benedict XVI had pronounced definitely in favour of canonisation in March 2008. Curiously, Pope
Benedict XV had beatified the jihadi saint in 1918. Cardinal Saraiva relinquished his chair 3 months later.
It will not be out of place to mention that among eight canonised Portuguese saints, there are two with
Indian links. The Franciscan St Gonzalo Garcia (who had an Indian mother), who belonged to the Nagasaki
Martyrs of 1597, and St John Britto, who was martyred in Oriyur (Madura) for converting a brother of the
Raja of Ramnad, and for chastising the Raja for practising polygamy. Incidentally, the father of the latest
Portuguese saint had 32 children from three wives!
The five Jesuits (including three Portuguese) and at least 14 laymen, mostly Goans, killed in Cuncolim in
1583, had their martyrdom ‘proved’ by Pope Benedict XIV in 1741. On 16 April 1893, the solemn beatification
of the five Jesuit martyrs was celebrated at St Peter’s in Rome. It was celebrated the next year in Goa. It is
still not clear why the lay ‘martyrs’ were ignored!
It is not surprising that the fourth centenary of the event in 1983 was marked by a social upheaval in
Cuncolim. It proved to be a very unpleasant experience for the Church authorities in the post-liberation era.
The politics of canonisations is one of those undeclared mysteries of the Catholic Church, and it will be
forever a ground for contestations. On the day the Portuguese were commemorating the 25th of April this
year to mark the end of Salazar’s dictatorship, some admirers of the dictator in his native place – Santa

http://www.oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=21394&cid=14 23-05-2009
oHERALDo :: Portuguese Saints: St Teotónio to St Nuno Page 2 of 2

Comba Dão – were dedicating a square to him with the full support of the political party controlling the local
municipality.
We need not wonder, therefore, if sometime soon Salazar is presented as a candidate for canonisation. No
one in Portugal doubts that the country needs a model politician, someone beyond any real or alleged charge
of corruption. Since the Catholic Church loves to provide models, Pope Benedict XVI (or XVII?) may do the
Portuguese a favour to strengthen the fledgling democracy.
By then, another Portuguese Cardinal may also find a niche in the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints
at the Vatican. It is always a question of the politically right timing and some other factors coming together.
There is a popular Portuguese saying: Descer todos os santos ajudam! All saints help to go down! Do the
Portuguese need to go down any further?

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