História, santidade e identidade : o Agiologio Lusitano de Jorge Cardoso e o seu contexto

Abstract

Jorge Cardoso’s Agiologio Lusitano is one of the great monuments of 17th Century Portuguese culture. Its explicit intent was to compose an inventory of all the “lives” of saints and other men and women “illustrious in virtue” of Portugal and its conquests”, who were at risk of being “buried in oblivion”. The Agiologio also intended to praise the “santos da Patria”, so that the Portuguese would have models to follow and the "foreigners” would recognize Portugal as a “home of holy people”. In spite of its incompleteness – the Agiologio was only partially continued in the 18 th Century by D. António Caetano de Sousa –, this work became an indispensable reference for those studying sainthood in Portugal until the 17 th century, as well as for the study of the religious and social life of the period.