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The first nunnery
built in Ponta Delgada is called Nossa Senhora da Esperança,<Our Lady of Hope>. Construction began
while its founder, Donor Captain Rui Gonçalves da Câmara (Rui II), was still living. After the earthquake
that occurred on October 20, 1522 in the then city of Vila Franca, he moved to Ponta Delgada which had become a
town in 1499.His wife, D. Filipa Coutinho, helped by many noblemen, managed to conclude the work on the nunnery
that had been interrupted at the time of the founder's death on October 20, 1535.
On April 23, 1540
the nuns who lived at the convent in Caloura moved to the Esperança Monastery, bringing with them the image
of the Senhor Santo Cristo.In the second half of the XVII century the monastery was greatly improved. The glazed
tiles that are still in the lower choir made by António de Oliveira Bernardes; the golden coating of the
shrine in the lower choir that Miguel Romeiro had dreamt and then accomplished; the paintings on the ceiling and
the original golden coating of the main and lateral shrines, executed in 1658 by the painter Manuel Pinheiro Moreira
from the island of S. Miguel. He belonged to the Third Order of S. Francisco in Ponta Delgada and was also his
own daughter's art teacher.
In 1723 there were
102 nuns and 57 novices, pupils and servants at the Esperança convent. In 1821 the nunnery had then 108
women - 42 nuns who had taken their final vows, 36 laymen and 30 attendants. In 1865 there were 72 women, 9 who
were actually from the Esperança convent, 11 from the Conceição convent, one from the S. João
convent, one from the Bom Jesus convent in Ribeira Grande, one from the Santo André convent in Vila Franca,
16 girls who served in the choir, one secular, two ladies with no specific level, 21 community attendants and 11
private attendants.
The religious order
called the Religiosas de Maria Imaculada,<Immaculate Mary>, was the fourth to enter the Esperança
convent. The last Clarissa nun, Mother Abbess Maria Vicência Cabral, died in December of 1894. At that time
there were nuns who wore costumes and maintained the convents methods despite the criticisms that were coming out
in the periodical newspapers, which were still tightly tied to the anti-monastic decrees of May, 1832.
The religious order,
Visitandinas, which substituted the São José de Cluny Congregation, emerged in the third decade of
the present century along with the Bishop D. António Meireles. With the establishment of their school, situated
on Agostinho Pacheco Street and designed by the architect João Rebelo from S. Miguel, the Maria Imaculada
nuns came to occupy the convent that they had helped construct.
The nuns who belonged
to the Cluny Order designated Mother Maria do Carmo to care for the Santo Cristo shrine because, as they said,
who better than an Azorean to look after it properly. Mother Maria do Carmo was from S. Miguel and Mariano Victor
Cabral´s niece, sub-editor of the newspaper "Diário dos Açores". The Maria Imaculada
sisters, who substituted the Clarissa Order present from 1541 until 1894, have been extremely attentive to the
spiritual meaning of the convent and have cooperated excellently with the Sanctuary's deans.
In April of 1959, the then Bishop of Angra, D. Manuel Afonso de Carvalho,
declared the Santo Cristo Church Diocesan Sanctuary.
Here is an excerpt of the episcopal decree:
"D. Manuel Afonso de Carvalho, by the grace of God and of the Holy
Apostolic See Bishop of Angra and Islands of the Azores:
(…) So that this worship of Jesus Christ not die and that the Lord's
Passion fully absorb all souls, without emerging any inappropriate act or practice according to the Holy Church's
spirit and orientation, we hereby:
1) Declare the Santo Cristo dos Milagres Church Diocesan Sanctuary and
to confide its administration to a priest designated by Us;
2) To recommend all parish priests and clergymen to indicate the real
spirit of piety and fervor towards the Santo Cristo in the faithful, not forgetting to remind them of the dangers
that may emerge at the time of this annual feast. In doing so all their actions should be in name of the greatest
glory of the Lord.
3) To strongly advise all Azoreans, no matter what their class, that
at difficult times such as those of the bonanza, to summon, with true feeling and faith, the Senhor Santo Cristo
and ask Him to maintain within them the purity of heart, the submission of the unfortunate, and especially, the
blessing of leading a life according to God's will, so that one day they may be able to commend Him in the Reign
of Glory.
Angra and Episcopal Palace, April 22, 1959."
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