Modelos de "santidade" nobiliária feminina no Portugal medieval: usos, funcionalidades e reescritas na Época Moderna

Abstract

Noble sanctity is part of a long tradition, according to which there was a link between nobility of birth and nobility of character. In the Portuguese case, it is possible to trace several examples «embodied» by female figures of aristocratic origin, whose memory was recorded by several authors, in a hagiographic tone, despite the fact that many of these characters were neither beatified nor canonized. Against this background, this article seeks to study the patterns in which the fama sanctitatis of D. Constança Sanches and D. Teresa Martins was constructed and its reception in the Modern Period, through the analysis of several sources. The investment in the promotion of their «sanctity» increased between the end of the 16th century and the middle of the 18th century, a process that is in tune with the context of the so-called Counter-Reformation and has parallels with other cases of medieval figures.