page_title: Alexandre da Sagrada Família
section_title: Bishop of Angra
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandre da Sagrada Família / Biography / Career / Bishop of Angra
caption_attribution_description: English: D. Friar Alexander of the Holy Family (1737-1818), bishop of Angra. Português: D. Frei Alexandre da Sagrada Família (1737-1818), bispo de Angra.
context_page_description: Alexandre da Sagrada Família, born Alexandre José da Silva, was the 25th Bishop of Angra, governing between 1816 until his death in 1818. The first Bishop born in the Azores, known as a poet, he was the paternal uncle of Almeida Garrett, and stayed with his parents when he visited Terceira.
context_section_description: In the following year, during the Peninsular War, friar Alexandre escaped to the Azores, settling in Angra on the island of Terceira, with his brother António Bernardo da Silva Garrett and his family.
  This move began a period of his life where he interacted with his nephew, João Baptista, who would later be known as Almeida Garrett. He was responsible for influencing the young artist, counselling and orienting him into an ecclesiastical life, going as far as soliciting for him a place in the college at the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Angra. Friar Alexandre strongly influenced his intellectual instruction, providing him with a solid understanding of literature and a taste for the classics, along with conservative ideals which the young intellectual would later reject. Yet, Almeida Garret would always manifest a sincere veneration for his uncle, and dropped many references in his poems during later parts of his life.
  Apparently at the request of his brother Antonio Bernardo, who was seeking the appointment of his eldest son (also named Alexander) to Customshouse of Porto, D. Alexander left in 1811 for Rio de Janeiro in order to petition the Prince Regent. It was during his stay in the Corte in Rio de Janeiro that he learned of the death of Bishop José Pegado de Azevedo in Ponta Delgada, then 24th Bishop of Angra. With the vacancy at the Cathedral of Angra, on 7 January 1812 the Prince Regent presented D. Alexander for the position, requesting the necessary papal confirmation. He returned to Angra in 1813 as designate replacement, but papal confirmation never arrived and he returned to Rio de Janeiro.
  Returning the following year to Angra, he discovered the diocesan caretaker in open revolt with the apostolic nuncio, Lorenzo Caleppi, then Archbishop of Nisibi, who wanted to nominate a head vicar. A reputed canon, and bishop designate of the diocese, he was solicited to provide an opinion on the complaint. He responded on 24 July 1813:
  This Church, swears it fully belongs to the Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Grandmaster has in it legitimate jurisdiction, per alium exercenda, as spoken by the Jesuits. All the benefits, all offices, flow from the Grandmaster and cannot, without express will and commandment it be abolished, changed, replaced by some other authority. And after various Pontificates confirmed these rights to the Order, who incorporated them into the Crowns of these kingdoms, not even those same Pontificates could, without the offense of those authorities and against the rights of those same Crowns, order and dispose contrarily those offices, benefits and positions of this Church. How could their Nuncio, by a despotic act, even as the same Pontificate could not?
  As Sagrada Família was awaiting papal confirmation which was dependent on the influence of the same apostolic nuncio, his impolite response was not left without a response. The papal nuncio delayed his process and directed his agents in the Vatican to cause Sagrada Família's confirmation to be blocked or repealed. Although his efforts were eventually unsuccessful, four uncertain years passed, during which time the post remained vacant, even as the bishop was present on the island. Finally, on 12 July 1816, the long-awaited apostolic letters of confirmation were issued, but still arrived in Angra without the royal Exequatur that normally accompanied these documents. Since they arrived directly, without passing through the Corte in Rio de Janeiro, the bishop maintained his residence situation and the Canon (priest) assumed temporary and spiritual power, as if the position was vacated.
  Only four months later, on 4 November 1816, did Alexandre da Sagrada Família become the Bishop of Angra, through his proxy, the canon José Narciso de Mendonça. On 15 December of the same year, at the Church of the Misericórdia of Angra, did solemn ceremonies mark his investiture as the new bishop.
  Even at 80 years of age (at the time an exceptional age) he assumed his position with vigor, taking-on many responsibilities in the religious and civil lif
caption: Alexandre da Sagrada Família in his later years, as Bishop of Angra
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