Sanctity in the Order of the Preachers: Friar Bartolomeu dos Mártires and the tridentine model for episcopal authority (XVIth-XVIIIth centuries)

Abstract

Bartolomeu dos Mártires, O.P., Archbishop of Braga (1559-1582), became an important character to the Order of the Preachers as a model of the new archetype of episcopacy consolidated during the last period of the Council of Trent (1562-1563). Due to his protagonism in the tridentine debates, his published treatises about the episcopal pastorate, his ruling over Braga and his good reputation regarding common ecclesiastical sins, the friar was considered a model to be followed in the post-tridentine Church and soon turned into a candidate for sanctity. Bartolomeu dos Mártires’ biographies, written by two of the most important dominicans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the theologian Luis of Granada and the chronicler Luis de Sousa, indicated the signs of holiness in his characteristics and behavior, reproduced in the canonization process initiated in 1631. However, proposing him as a holy example meant creating a sanctified memory and silencing his several political conflicts and controversies. The aim of this paper is to propose an analysis of the sanctification of Friar Bartolomeu dos Mártires, based on the Archbishop’s hagiographies and canonization process as a way to glorify the Order and propagate the pastoral archetype, putting aside his political feature, comparing History and Memory.