7 - The Imaculada as Portugal’s Patroness

Summary

Abstract: On 25 March 1646, John IV proclaimed Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception patroness of Portugal. An engraving presenting John IV as defender of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is analyzed, as is the coin struck and distributed on the occasion of the oath. A Bengali wall hanging or bedspread (colcha) in which a king appears without a crown is brought together with this event. A second, related colcha recounts in detail the events that led to the coup d’état and thus shows how dense the exchange of information was between individual Portuguese domains. The numerous ivory statuettes of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception made in India and Sri Lanka are linked here for the first time to John IV's oath of fealty.

Keywords: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of Portugal, coin, Bengalese Restoration colchas, ivory statuettes from India and Sri Lanka

John IV's Oath of Fealty (25 March 1646)

As we have seen, John IV had declined coronation. Staff and scepter were deployed during his oath taking ceremony, but no crown. Six years after his elevation to the Portuguese throne, he decided who merited the crown in his place. During his acclamation, on 8 December 1640—the feast day of the Immaculate Conception— the Franciscan friar João de São Bernardino called for designation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception as the patron saint of the Restoration events in his inaugural sermon in Lisbon's palace chapel. On this day, the new king thanked the Virgin for her support during recent events and promised, as the king is said to have put it, “to erect a trophy for the Imaculada Conceição, to be transformed in coming centuries into an eternal monument for the Restoration of Portugal.” Four years later, on 26 December 1644, Nuno da Cunha, rector of Coimbra's Jesuit college, took the decisive step and conveyed a written recommendation to the king that the Virgin Mary be declared Portuguese patroness, keeping in mind the recent victory of Elvas, which was also ascribed to the Virgin's intervention. Just as Afonso Henriques had placed the kingdom under the eternal protection of the Virgin of Clairvaux after his victory over the Muslim troops, now John IV repeated the gesture, in that way renewing Portuguese Marian devotion. In the course of their meeting between 28 December 1645 and 16 March 1646, the Cortes thus passed the necessary resolution.