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✅1654 | Castaway and Preacher: Father António Vieira in the Azores

In the maritime history of the Azores islands, some figures of global prominence, as well as others of great national relevance, intersect. One of them is Father António Vieira, the man whom Fernando Pessoa defined as the "emperor of the Portuguese language."
— Fernando Pessoa, Mensagem, 9th edition, Lisbon, Ática Editions, 1970, p. 92.

António Vieira was born in Lisbon in 1608, but at the age of eight, he moved to Brazil, where his father had been appointed as the clerk of the Bahia Court of Appeals. In 1623, he joined the Society of Jesus as a novice, dedicating himself to "a profound study of the main languages of Brazil."

In May 1624, he witnessed the invasion of Bahia, the capital of Brazil, by a Dutch fleet of 26 ships and approximately 3,400 men commanded by Jacob Willekens.

"And it was such a storm of fire and iron, such a thunder and confusion, that to many, especially the inexperienced, it caused disturbance and astonishment. On one side, the many lightning bolts striking hurt the eyes, and with the dense smoke cloud, no one could see; on the other side, the continuous thunder of the artillery muffled the use of tongues and ears, and all together, mixed with trumpets and other war instruments, it was terror for many and confusion for all."
— Father António Vieira, cited by J. Lúcio de Azevedo. In História de António Vieira, Volume I, 1992, p. 27.

However, the following year, a powerful Luso-Spanish fleet freed the city, and Father António Vieira returned to his novitiate activities. With the news of the Restoration in 1640, the Marquis of Montalvão, one of the few Viceroys who had served in Brazil, sent his son to Lisbon to greet the new King João IV, and Father António Vieira was chosen to accompany him.

His intelligence and talent were quickly recognized in Lisbon, and he was appointed preacher and royal advisor. He was also entrusted with various diplomatic missions, including to The Hague, Paris, London, and Rome. Despite the king’s insistence that he remain in Lisbon, Father António Vieira returned to Brazil in 1652 to focus on the evangelization of indigenous populations, traveling to the Pará missions, where he encountered the harsh conditions of exploitation that the settlers imposed on the natives.

Convinced of the need to free these populations from the slavery to which he believed they were subjected, he decided to go to Lisbon to influence King João IV to protect the rights of the indigenous people. He embarked on June 14, 1654, aboard a ship from the newly-formed General Company of Brazil's Trade. Three days earlier, in São Luís do Maranhão, he had preached the Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish, a scathing satire against the settlers who defended slavery and opposed the Christianization of the indigenous peoples. It is considered one of his most expressive sermons.

The ship sank near the island of Corvo, and the survivors were captured by a Dutch pirate ship, which landed them on the island of Graciosa. According to João Lúcio de Azevedo, one of his biographers, "The abandoned boat of the survivors, loaded with sugar, was a valuable prize; the captors took it to Holland. Inside, with his scanty belongings, was the most precious possession of the priest: his papers and a few books."
— J. Lúcio de Azevedo, História de António Vieira, Volume I, 1992, p. 218.

As soon as he could, Father António Vieira wrote to his friend Jerónimo Nunes da Costa, who lived in Amsterdam, asking for the rescue, "at any cost," of the papers and books that had been captured by the pirate ship.

The survivors spent about two months on the island of Graciosa, where they were assisted by the local clergy and population. During his stay on the island, Father António Vieira focused on reflection and writing. He is said to have delivered a sermon and is credited with instituting the custom of praying the Rosary on the island, as during the difficult moments of the shipwreck, they made "the vow aloud to pray the Rosary every day of their lives."
— Ibid., p. 217.

They then moved on to the island of Terceira, where they stayed only for a week, but "where the devotion was so great that at the same time, in three churches, the Rosary began to be prayed." From Terceira, they moved on to the island of São Miguel, which "had the greater fortune in this passage," as "it heard this divine preacher in its pulpit."
— Arquivo dos Açores, Volume Sexto, 1884, p. 204.

In one of his sermons, Sermon of Saint Theresa in the College of the Society of Jesus of São Miguel Island: having escaped from a terrible shipwreck and brought to this island:
"I clearly see that the force of the winds and the violence of the storms is what brought me to these islands, or threw me into them... Certainly, the storm of Jonah was not as great as the one in which I and my companions found ourselves. The ship overturned in the middle of the sea, and we were outside, clinging to the hull, crying out for God's mercy and His Mother's mercy. There was no whale there to swallow us, but there appeared, not less miraculously at that point, one of those sea monsters that infest these seas. It swallowed us, and then vomited us ashore."
— Sermoens do P. Antonio Vieira da Companhia de Jesu, Quarta Parte, Lisbon, Na officina de Miguel Deslandes, 1685, pp. 248-290.

Father António Vieira reached Lisbon in November 1654 aboard an English ship, with the voyage having been made during a violent storm. From this journey, Father António Vieira also left us a curious account of the passengers' behavior aboard during bad weather, through a sermon he preached shortly afterward at the Royal Chapel in Lisbon.

"In this last voyage (may I be allowed to tell this case, for rare and proper to the intention, it is quite remarkable); in this last voyage of mine, which was from the Islands to Lisbon, where that crossing in winter is one of the most difficult, the ship was of heretics, and the pilot and sailors were heretics; we, the passengers, were some religious of different religions, and a large number of those insular musicians... The storms were more than ordinary, but the effects I noticed in them were truly admirable. All of us religious were occupied with prayers and litanies, making vows to the heavens, performing exorcisms on the waves, throwing relics into the sea, and above all, acts of contrition, confessing ourselves as if to die once and many times. The sailors, being heretics, with their axes by the masts, ate and drank joyfully more than ever, mocking our ceremonies, which they called."
— Arquivo dos Açores, Volume Sexto, 1884, p. 208.

He then returned to Brazil, but after the death of King João IV in 1656, "Vieira found himself without a protector," and it was then that "the hatred of some settlers hurt by their interests conspired against his imprisonment, and he was sent to Lisbon as a criminal in 1661."

The Inquisition court eventually sent him to prison for almost two years.
In 1669, he went to Rome, where he stayed for seven years. He returned to Lisbon and in 1681, he left for Brazil again, being entrusted by the Superior General of his Order with the 'direction of all the convents of the order and all the missions.'

Father António Vieira passed away in July 1697 in the city of Bahia de Todos os Santos at the age of 89.

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