DOMINICANS IN
ANCIENT SÃO TOMÉ & CONGO-ANGOLALeo X in 1514 established the diocese of Funchal, a town on the island of Madeira, with jurisdiction over all the Portuguese discoveries from Cape Bojador to the Far East. In 1518 the same Pope gave the bishop of Funchal, who resided in Lisbon, an auxiliary for São Tomé and Congo, and in 1533 Pope Clement VII made São Tomé a separate diocese, extending from Cape Palmas to Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa. In 1597 the diocese of São Salvador in Congo was separated from São Tomé, although the bishops of this diocese hardy ever lived there. Dominicans were intermittently involved in the history of both dioceses.
São Tomé
The Portuguese discovered São Tomé in 1470 and settled it with colonists and slaves. Franciscans were present at the beginning, (1) and by 1494 African priests trained in Lisbon were sent to the island. (2) Augustinians came early in the 16th century and remained until 1594, returning at a later time.
The first bishop, Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas (1534-40), was a diocesan priest. He never came to his diocese and was transferred to Ceuta. His successor, the Dominican Bernardo da Cruz, never came either because less than a year after his appointment he was made rector of the University of Comimbra in Portugal. Nevertheless he retained his title to São Tomé and another Dominican, João Baptista, was appointed his auxiliary in 1542. (3) João Baptista, however, was to reside in Congo to succeed the late auxiliary Bishop Henrique, while a vicar general looked after São Tomé.
Bernardo da Cruz finally resigned as bishop of São Tomé in 1553 (4) and the next year Gaspar Cão, an Augustinian, was appointed and took up residence on the island. Gaspar Cão had many disputes with the governor of the island. Complaints led the Pope to order an ecclesiastical trial in which the Bishop was acquitted of the charges against him. In 1571 Gaspar Cão founded a seminary which lasted until his death in 1574. (5) In the same period he sent Augustinians to Warri. Jesuits were also present on São Tomé in 1570, 1604 and 1636. (6)
Under Bishop Martinho de Ulhoa (1578-91), of the Order of Christ, the seminary was revived in 1585, but his successor, the Franciscan Francisco de Vila Nova (1593-1602) had it moved to Portugal in 1595 because of a quarrel with the Augustinians about the running of the seminary and because the Africans would not let their sons or relatives enter. (7) Portuguese relations with the Africans in São Tomé were not in fact good at this time. In 1584 and 1593 the black people of the interior revolted and there was a slave revolt in 1595. (8) In 1598 the Portuguese waged a war against the blacks of the interior with the intention of wiping them out. (9) The Portuguese on their part suffered a devestating invasion by the Dutch in 1599.
The next bishop was a Dominican, António Valente (1604-9), who had been a professor of moral theology, left for São Tomé in April 1605. (10) On arriving, the bishop complained to Lisbon that the episcopal allowances had been suspended at the death of his predecessor, and that he also needed support for the friars who were assisting him. This was ordered to be paid, and the bishop was given funds to send a priest to the island of Annobon and two to Warri and Benin. He was particularly instructed to report compliance with the order to send a priest to Warri. (11) We must remember that from 1600 to 1609 the Warri prince, Dom Domingos, was studying in Lisbon. (12)
There was also much talk of establishing a seminary at São Tomé or Lisbon, but up to the time of the bishop's death nothing was done. (13) A financial report indicates that he had in his diocese an archdeacon, a cantor, a bursor, twelve canons, and three priest assistants. Apart from the cathedral there were seven parishes and a hospital. (14)
This bishop complained of the armed bands and insecurity on the island as a result of the election of the new governor, Joãso Barbosa, and also that the Dean, Pero Fernandez Barbosa, the governor's brother, used his title of Subcollector Apostolicus to undermine the bishop's authority and excommunicate some canons. Therefore in 1607 he returned to Portugal. The Portuguese royal officials were unhappy with this situation and got the king to order him to go back with a new governor; the Dean was warned to be obedient to the bishop, and the bishop was advised to deal gently with his subjects. (15) In November 1607 the bishop returned with the new governor. (16)
After Bishop António Valente's death, seven years elapsed before a successor was provided, Pedro da Cunha (1616-22), an Augustinian. The year he arrived another revolt of the blacks was put down. (17) In 1632 he died, supposedly poisoned by "new Christians", i.e. converted Jews or Muslims from Spain who were so often the object of suspicion at home and in the colonies. (18) A new bishop, António Nogueira, of the Order of Christ, was appointed the same year, but never went.
From 1641 to 1649 São Tomé was occupied by the Dutch. When the island returned to Portuguese hands, a normal but not problem-free Church existed. The only development connected with São Tomé in the following century was the work of the Capuchins. Since 1639 they stopped there on their way to other destinations, and after 1685 had the church and hospice of Santo António which was a base for their missions on the islands of Anno Bon and Principe and the mainland kingdoms of Warri, Benin, Ardra, Whydah, Calabar and Bonny. Lack of numbers, controversies with the civil and diocesan authorities of São Tomé and Portuguese restrictions against foreigners led to the final withdrawal of the Capuchins in 1794. The Church continued to exist simply as a holding operation.
The first Dominican mission to Congo
In his first voyage to the mouth of the Zaïre (Congo) river in 1482 Diogo Cão made contact with representatives or vassals of the king of Congo and was allowed to take four young Congolese men back with him to Portugal. These were educated and baptized in Portugal and returned with Diogo Cã on his second voyage in 1490. Their relatives in Congo had given up all hope of ever seeing them again and were overjoyed at their return. As a result, the Portuguese and their religion were heartily welcomed. A number of Franciscans and a few Dominicans came with Diogo Cão and set to work teaching the faith with the help of the Congolese young men who returned with them. (19)
Mpinda, the town at the mouth of the Zaïre river where Diogo Cão landed, was in the land of Sonyo, whose mani (king) was a vassal of the Mani-Congo further in the interior. The prefect of the mission, according to De Barros, was Fr. João, a Dominican, (20) but Rui de Pina says it was Fr. Joham (a variant of João), a Franciscan, while George Cardoso and Francisco de Santa Maria say the missionaries were Canons of St. John the Evangelist of Azuis. (21) On Easter Sunday 3 April 1491 this priest baptized the Mani-Sonyo, who took the name Manuel, and his son, who took the name António. An embassy accompanied by Fr. João then went on to the Congo capital, later named São Salvador, which resulted in the baptism on 3 May 1491 of the Mani-Congo Nzinga Nkuwu (? - 1506), who took the name João, and later his wife, who took the name Leonor, after the king and queen of Portugal respectively.
Shortly afterwards the King's son Mvemba Nainga, who was the Mani of Nsundi, was baptized and took the name Afonso. Around 1493 King João, resenting the preaching that he should keep to one wife, turned more and more to his former spiritualistic practices and conspired with his non-Christian son Panso Akitimo to oppose Christianity. Christianity, however, continued to spread in Sonyo and Nsundi, whose manis remained faithful. The King died around 1560 and Queen Leonor concealed his death until her son Afonso could come from Nsundi and secretly enter the capital. There he rallied his supporters and, calling on the name of Jesus and the Apostle James (Santiago), defeated his brother Panso Akitimo, who had surrounded the town with a large army, and became king.
During the reign of Afonso I more priests came, notably some Franciscans in 1504, 1509, 1511 and 1514, some Canons of St. John the Evangelist of Azuis in 1508 and some Augustinian Canons of Santo Eloi in 1514. A school for boys was planned but not immediately realized. A number of boys were sent to Portugal for education. When some of them were careless about studying Afonso wrote to King Manuel of Portugal telling him to punish the boys but not send them away. (22) On the other hand Afonso often had to complain of Portuguese officials and traders in Congo and on São Tomé who were overstepping themselves and claiming a monopoly in certain areas of trade. (23) He also complained of the avarice of certain missionaries. (24)
In 1512 Afonso sent an embassy to Pope Julius II. In 1518 Pope Leo X granted his request to have his son Henrique ordained a bishop. Henrique had been educated with the Augustinian Canons of Santo Eloi in Lisbon and was 24 years old. Pope Leo emphasised that his ordination as a bishop at that early age was exceptional and that some theologians and canon lawyers should be provided to advise him. Ordained in 1520, bishop Henrique returned to work in his country in the capacity of auxiliary to the bishop of Funchal and titular bishop of Utica, a town a little north of Carthage in Tunisia which once was the seat of a bishop. Bishop Henrique had too much work to do and in 1526 Afonso wrote several times to King João III of Portugal asking for 50 priests and 6 Augustinian Canons of Santo Eloi to help him. (25) Little Portugal did not have so many priests to dispose of, and the same year Afonso wrote again to João III telling him that Bishop Henrique was not well and asking to have two nephews of his ordained bishops to help Henrique and to ordain Congolese priests. (26)
Bishop Henrique died in 1530, and Afonso's request was not granted. In fact no other African was ordained a bishop until Joseph Kiwanuka was made bishop of Masaka, Uganda, in 1939.
Afonso died in 1543, and was succeeded by his son Pedro, who was overthrown the next year by his nephew Diogo.
In September 1642 the Portuguese Dominican João Baptista was appointed auxiliary to the bishop of São Tomé (Bernardo da Cruz OP) and titular bishop of Utica. Diogo I (1545-61) received this successor of Bishop Henrique, and the new bishop began a priory in São Salvador for African Dominicans, (27) but soon fell out of the King's grace. In 1546 and 1547 King Diogo complained to Fr. Diogo Gomes, a Portuguese priest born in Congo and serving as King Diogo's confessor and ambassador to Portugal, that the Bishop was arrogant and possibly writing bad reports about King Diogo to Portugal. (28) In 1547 King Diogo wrote to King João II of Portugal informing him that he had expelled the Bishop. (29)
The second Dominican mission to Congo
Álvaro I was driven from his capital by the Yakas in 1569 and lost most of his territory to them. The Portuguese governor of São Tomé helped him expel the Yakas and fortify São Salvador. Four Dominicans came with the governor of São Tomé in 1570 to help reconstruct Christianity in the restored kingdom. They were Fathers Aluaro da Gram, Fernando Machado, Diogo dos Martyres, and the lay brother, Gonçalo Moreira. After working a while in Luanda, mostly among the Portuguese, since the countryside was at war, they moved on to Congo, which was at peace.
One of them was with the Duke of Sunde when his land was invaded by a large enemy army. When he saw the Duke trembling with fear, he pulled out a crucifix, held it up and shouted for all to hear, "This is the image of Jesus Christ crucified whom you acknowledge as God. Here is your captain and your banner." He then rushed with the crucifix against the enemy and everyone followed and routed the superior enemy force.
After much work of evangelization Fr. Aluaro and Brother Gonçalo died. The other two returned home worn out and soon joined their departed companions. (30)
Since Spain annexed Portugal in 1580 Spanish religious were allowed to go to Portuguese zones. In 1584 three Discalced Carmelites reached Congo, passing through Luanda. In São Salvador they met four priests (Dominicans of the 1570 mission?), the only ones in the kingdom, and King Álvaro welcomed them saying that the European religious who had come to Congo before had left their holiness north of the Equator. In 1589 they returned to Spain full of enthusiasm to recruit more Carmelites, but the new provincial wanted nothing to do with missions. There the matter ended, to King Álvaro's disappointment. (31)
One of the Carmelites, Diego del Santísimo Sacramento, complained of white people in Congo "who have more than a thousand black slaves and in a whole year do not give them a mouthful of bread to eat and send them out to the fields like cattle to multiply." (32) Small wonder that King Álvaro's gratitude to the Portuguese for help against the Yakas turned cool, so that he was suspected of aiding the king of Angola in resisting the Portuguese. (33)
One of Álvaro's envoys to Rome, the Portuguese Duarte Lopes, wrote a description of Congo which was published in 1591, translated into many languages and given much publicity, paving the way for the creation of the diocese of São Salvador in 1595. In the meantime Álvaro died in 1587 and was succeeded by his son Álvaro II.
Álvaro II (1587-1614) encouraged Church growth and welcomed the Jesuits who visited him in 1587, (34) but reports in 1591 suspect his sympathy with the king of Angola. (35) In 1595 Álvaro's ambassador in Madrid complained of Portuguese who were buying Congolese slaves. (36) Álvaro could afford to take an independent line from Spain-Portugal because Duarte Lope's book and his own correspondence with the Pope gave him a footing in Rome which soon developed into an alliance which irked Spain-Portugal.
The first major benefit of this alliance was the creation in 1595 of the diocese of São Salvador, separated from that of São Tomé. Yet the king of Spain-Portugal insisted on and was conceded the right of padroado over the new diocese. The first bishop, a Portuguese Franciscan named Miguel Rangel Homem, arrived in 1599 and died in 1602. The dean of the diocesan chapter, a man Álvaro did not like, then ran the diocese until the appointment of the Portuguese Dominican António de Santo Estêvão in 1604. To assure that he went there, the King of Portugal made the payment of his salary contingent on his residence in his diocese. (37)
The latter appointment was made before Álvaro's embassy of 1604 reached Rome saying that he would rather not have a Portuguese bishop. The instructions sent along with Álvaro's ambassador, the Congolese António Manuel, also complained of Portuguese raids on Congolese mines and raised the fundamental question of whether the king of Angola should be deprived of his kingdom to make room for Portuguese expansion and exportation of the country's riches. (38) In 1605 Álvaro's ambassador in Madrid, Fr. Diogo Gonçalves Manuel, was suspended from the exercise of his priesthood for voicing too boldly King Álvaro's sentiments. Disregarding the suspension as unjust and invalid, he was imprisoned and ordered by King Philip III of Spain to be put in a monastery prison or sent to the galleys. His diplomatic papers were confiscated. (39)
Álvaro's ambassador to the Pope, António Manuel, arrived in Lisbon in 1605 wounded after being captured on the sea by Dutch pirates. In Spain he requested Discalced Carmelites and Dominicans for Congo and asked for the reinstatement of Jerónimo de Almeida as governor of Luanda because the present governor was hostile to the king of Congo. (40)
The King of Spain's Council decided that Dominicans could go to Congo but not Spanish Carmelites, because the Council of Portugal did not want non-Portuguese religious, although the reason they gave the Pope was that the Carmelites might not get along well with the Dominicans. As for the Congolese Ambassador's intention to continue on to Rome, the Council pointed out that previous embassies of the king of Congo had raised important questions and complaints to the Pope and therefore the Spanish-Portuguese agent in Rome should examine all the Congolese Ambassador's papers before letting him give them to the Pope and this agent should if possible take the papers and do all the talking with the Pope about Congolese interests. (41)
António Manuel finally arrived in Rome on 2 January 1608. He was exhausted and sick and died at the age of 33, three days after arriving. Pope Paul V personally looked after him in his illness and attended him while he died. He was buried in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major and in the sacristy there is a monument to him.
In the meantime Bishop António de Santo Estêvão of São Salvador asked in October 1607 for permission to retire because he was not well and thought he had been poisoned. (42) He died in April 1608. (43) In 1609 the Portuguese Franciscan Manuel Baptista Soares was appointed his successor.
The third Dominican mission to Congo
In spite of the repeated and strenuous protests of the Portuguese, Paul V went ahead with King Álvaro's request as contained in his ambassador's papers and commissioned the Spanish Discalced Carmelites to go to Congo. But the Portuguese, especially through its representative to the Holy See, José de Melo, pressed for sending Portuguese Dominicans instead, as King Álvaro requested. (44) Portugal, which was becoming more powerful and nearly independent of Spain, prevented the Carmelites from going, to the great displeasure of the Pope and Cardinal Scipione Borghese. (45)
Four Dominicans did go: Lourenço da Cunha as prefect, Fernando do Espirutu Sancto, Gonçalo de Carualho and the lay brother Domingos da Annunciação, departing from Lisbon on 25 March 1610 and arriving at Luanda on 3 July. On 16 September they left Luanda for the Rio Dande and met an enthusiastic reception at Bamba. On the way to São Salvador the porters sent with them went on strike, causing them much suffering, but this was compensated by the king's kind reception on their arrival. He built them a church and a house and supplied them with all their needs.
Although most of the people were baptized Catholics, the Dominicans were appalled at their ignorance of the faith and their addiction to practices of traditional religion and the ease with which the men multiplied and sacked wives. To bring about a reformation, the Dominicans on the one hand established the Confraternity of the Rosary; on the other hand they preached against the abuses they observed.
This approach was initially successful, but soon the Dominicans found themselves outside the grace of King Álvaro. According to the Dominican story, this was because a criole (half-cast) priest was jealous of their success, since he himself was not educated and had loose morals. The Dominicans found themselves cut off from royal support and had to go around begging for the necessities of life. Finally, after two brothers had died, the Prefect, who was suffering from a bad fever, decided to pull out. He returned to Portugal via Luanda and Brazil, and later became a superior in Montemór o Nouo in Portugal. (46)
But King Álvaro's own story is told in a letter to the Pope that he wrote through the Spanish priest, Juan Baptista Vives, who since 1613 was his permanent ambassador to the Holy See. He complained several times of the Portuguese in general and the bishop of São Salvador in particular. Evangelization was at a standstill and the few priests were not interested in it. The two Dominicans, he says, "produced no fruit and got involved in affairs alien to their calling, the wish of the King and their obligations." He therefore asked once again for Discalced Carmelites. (47)
After the death of Álvaro in August 1614 these negotiations were suspended and complaints were continued by his half-brother Bernardo II. The latter was deposed and killed in August 1615 and was succeeded by Álvaro III, the son of Álvaro II. (48)
Conclusion
The subsequent history of the Church in ancient Congo is very interesting, but this was the last of any Dominican presence. For many years the Capuchins supplemented the diocesan clergy in keeping the Church alive, until the revolution of 1834 in Portugal put an end to all religous orders and missionary work. Even Luanda, which had always been well provided for, was without a bishop for twenty years after 1826.
1. MMA, I, 163.
2. MMA, IV, 18.
3. MMA, II, 117, V, 64-80, 81, 84-5, 86, 87, 88-9.
4. MMA, IV, 207.
5. MMA, III, 52, 76.
6. MMA, III, 3; V, 94; VIII, 373.
7. MMA, III, 569, 314, 492.
8. MMA, III, 271, 461, 484.
9. MMA, III, 594.
10. MMA, V, 46, 49, 96-101, 107-9, 119-20, 131, 133.
11. MMA, V, 186-7.
12. Cf. J. Kenny, The Catholic Church in Tropical Africa, 1445-1850 (Ibadan University Press, 1982), pp. 48-49.
13. MMA, V, 149-50, 156, 172, 187, 451-2, 557.
14. MMA, V, 379-81; cf. 243-5.
15. MMA, V, 248, 252-6, 257-8, 259-61, 294-5, 302-4, 319-20, 365-6.
16. MMA, V, 359.
17. MMA, VI, 273.
18. MMA, VIII, 111, 164.
19. Brásio, in "Os proto-missionários do Congo,", Portugal em Africa, I, 99-112, gives this conclusion to the conflicting evidence of who were the first missionaries.
20. MMA, I, 83-5.
21. MMA, I, 86, 90-103.
22. MMA, I, 406.
23. MMA, I, 294, 355; II, 103-7.
24. MMA, I, 335; II, 76.
25. MMA, I, 459, 468, 475.
26. MMA, I, 483-4; IV, 141.
27. Jadin, "L'oeuvre missionnaire en Afrique noire," in Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide memoria rerum, vol. I/2 (1622-1700), (Rome: 1973), 427.
28. MMA, II, 151, 153.
29. MMA, II, 155.
30. MMA, IV, 273-5, quoting Luís de Sousa, Historia de S. Domingos.
31. MMA, II, 273, 281, 283, 295, 299; IV, 355, 393; Florencio del Nio Jesús (1929, 1934).
32. MMA, III, 340.
33. MMA, III, 340.
34. MMA, III, 344, 350.
35. MMA, III, 429.
36. MMA, III, 520.
37. MMA, V, 63, 64-80, 81, 84-5, 86, 87, 88-9, 91, 92, 127-8, 129, 133, 134-7.
38. MMA, V, 112.
39. MMA, V, 146, 151, 157.
40. MMA, V, 262.
41. MMA, V, 280.
42. MMA, V, 350.
43. MMA, V, 532.
44. MMA, V, 335-6, 440, 443, 446, 449-50, 453-4, 598-9, 600.
45. MMA, VI, 41, 42, 45.
46. MMA, V, 605-6, 607-14, quoting Luís de Sousa, História de S. Domingos.
47. MMA, VI, 125, 128-32.
48. MMA, VI, 288, 292.