Bartolomeu de Quental

Bartolomeu De Quental

Bartolomeu de Quental (born August 22, 1626 in Fenais da Luz , São Miguel Island , Azores , Portugal , † December 20, 1698 in Lisbon , Portugal) was a Portuguese clergyman and spiritual writer. He founded the Portuguese branch of the Oratorians and contributed to their worldwide expansion. He was widely venerated as a saint and wrote important spiritual writings.

Life

Bartolomeu de Quental came from a middle-class family, he had two brothers who excelled in politics and commerce. His father was a lawyer and royal councilor of the Azores at the royal court and also an important trader and merchant. The Quental family was one of the leading strata of the entire archipelago .

As a child and adolescent, he was said to have a peculiar love for Holy Mass and sermons. He briefly moved to Lisbon in 1643 to study philosophy at the Royal Academy in Evora and to complete his doctorate in 1647 . This was followed by a study of theology in Portugal's most important university in Coimbra . He finished his studies in 1652 and was ordained a priest in the Espirito Santo Church in December of the same year.

His spiritual career began at the king's court. There he became court chaplain and confessor of King Dom João IV. As the successor to António Vieira , who had gone on a mission to Brazil . During this time he got to know the teachings of the oratorians and their founder Philipp Neri and was inspired by them. Despite his increasing popularity, he was not too bad to continue to work as a simple traveling preacher.

After the death of King Dom João IV, he left the court and henceforth campaigned for the establishment of the Congregation of the Oratorians. He managed to get the Congregation approved for the first time in Portugal in 1667; The Congregation resided in the Casa de Lisboa for Portugal and overseas . He founded oratorio branches in Pernambuco (Brazil or Portuguese America) and in Goa . Thereby he contributed decisively to the worldwide spread of the congregation. Quental aligned its foundation with Bérulle , the French cardinal and oratorian who had founded a reform branch of the congregation. Quental strictly rejected music and pomp in the churches.

He died on December 20, 1698 at the age of 72 of complications from pleurisy .

The title of prelate of the church as well as the honorary title of "venerable" was bestowed on him by Pope Benedict XIV during his lifetime. In 1733 a biography of Bartolomeu appeared in Italian. A street in Ferais da Luz is named after him. In 1973 the Father's correspondence appeared in French.

Quental had the "call of holiness" and was extremely popular with the people. After his death, countless miracles were attributed to him. Twenty-nine years after his death, King Dom João V had his grave opened and found the body completely intact. He kissed his arm. Supporters of Quental suggested a beatification process with the Pope in 1720 and 1733 , but in the course of the expulsion and expropriation of the Jesuits in Portugal by the Marques de Pombal , the oratorios were also persecuted and the project was forgotten.

The famous poet Antero de Quental came from the de Quental family in the 19th century .

Works

• Meditações da infancia de Christo (Meditations on the Childhood of Christ), 1679.
• Meditações de morte de Christo (Meditations on the Death of Christ), 1683.
• Meditações de Christo nosso Senhor (Meditations on Christ our Lord), 1692–1694.
• Meditações dos domingos do ano (Meditations for the Sundays in the annual cycle), 1695/1696/1699.
• Sermões de Padre Bartolomeu de Quental (Sermons of Padre Bartolomeu de Quental), 1695–1699.
• Cartas de Padre Bartolomeu de Quental (letters and correspondence from Padre Bartolomeu de Quental, French), 1973.

Web links

Commons : Bartolomeu de Quental  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Quental, Bartolomeu do (Padre) , in: Enciclopédia Açoriana, Governo dos Açores, 2015, accessed on September 21, 2017 (Portuguese)