Senhorinha de Basto : memórias literárias da vida e milagres de uma santa medieval

Abstract

We start from a poem, whose text is reproduced here, written in Castillian by the Benedictine Friar Jerónimo Baía «in praise of Santa Senhorinha Portuguesa». The poem is included in the 16th century compilation ‘Fénix Renascida’. This article aims at enhancing the degree and type of interest the poet shows for the ‘life and miracles’ of this medieval saint, claimed as a pride of her Order, as well as for the devotional activity around the temple of Basto where the saint is buried. The author attempts a state-of-the-art of the biographies and the hagiographic tradition available in Friar Jerónimo Baía’s time, offering as well the text of the eighteen posthumous miracles of the Senhorinha, written «em hum portugues antigo» and read by Torquato Peixoto de Azevedo from a book then held in Basto, in the church named after the saint.