Religious Figure. He was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Brazil. A native of Évora, Pedro Fernando Sardinha was elected the first bishop of the then developing Portuguese colony of Brazil as ordinary of São Salvador da Bahia on February 25, 1551, at the age of fifty five. He received his episcopal consecration from Dom Fernando de Menezes Coutinho e Vasconcellos, archbishop of Lisbon on February 2 of the following year. With Brazil being then under the governorship of Duarte da Costa, serious disagreements soon developed between the latter's son, Álvaro, and the bishop. Álvaro da Costa wanted to enslave all the Indians, including those catechized but the bishop did not agree with this idea. Willing to take the complaints personally to the king of Portugal, Sardinha left for Lisbon in 1556 but was shipwrecked on the Alagoas coast and eventually devoured by Caeté cannibals along with some other one hundred persons making the same voyage. Naturally, the wreckage of the Nossa Senhora da Ajuda, which led to so many barbaric deaths, generated quite a controversy, eventually leading to the appointment of Mem de Sá as governor of Brazil.
Religious Figure. He was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Brazil. A native of Évora, Pedro Fernando Sardinha was elected the first bishop of the then developing Portuguese colony of Brazil as ordinary of São Salvador da Bahia on February 25, 1551, at the age of fifty five. He received his episcopal consecration from Dom Fernando de Menezes Coutinho e Vasconcellos, archbishop of Lisbon on February 2 of the following year. With Brazil being then under the governorship of Duarte da Costa, serious disagreements soon developed between the latter's son, Álvaro, and the bishop. Álvaro da Costa wanted to enslave all the Indians, including those catechized but the bishop did not agree with this idea. Willing to take the complaints personally to the king of Portugal, Sardinha left for Lisbon in 1556 but was shipwrecked on the Alagoas coast and eventually devoured by Caeté cannibals along with some other one hundred persons making the same voyage. Naturally, the wreckage of the Nossa Senhora da Ajuda, which led to so many barbaric deaths, generated quite a controversy, eventually leading to the appointment of Mem de Sá as governor of Brazil.
Bio by: Eman Bonnici
Advertisement
See more Sardinha memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
