page_title: Hermitage of Nossa Senhora dos Anjos (Vila do Porto)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hermitage of Nossa Senhora dos Anjos (Vila do Porto) / History
caption_attribution_description: Ermida de Nossa Senhora dos Anjos, feeguesia e concelho de Vila do Porto, ilha de Santa Maria, Açores.
context_page_description: The Hermitage of Nossa Senhora dos Anjos, is a hermitage/chapel located in the village of Anjos, on the northcoast of the civil parish of Vila do Porto, on the island of Santa Maria in the Portuguese Azores.
context_section_description: Although there are no clear indications to confirm that the chapel of Anjos was the first temple erected on the island of Santa Maria, a comparison of the first narratives about the early island's colonization allows most to assume that the hermitage in this village was the first constructed on the island. Consequently, owing to the island being the first location of an established settlement, it can be inferred that it was also the first religious building constructed in the Azores.
  Erected in 1439, the first chapel was erected of wood, and covered in hay, but shortly replaced by a building constructed of dry set masonry between 1460 and 1474.
  The principal resources about its history came from Father Francisco da Cunha Prestes, a university theologian (who attended the University of Evora from 1650–1653) and vicar of the Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção (Vila do Porto). The manuscript, "Livro da Irmandade de Nossa Senhora dos Anjos e Escravos da Cadeinha", dated to 1676 and today part of the collection in the Archive of Vila do Porto, refers to the chapel. The chapel was founded by Isabel Gonçalves, wife of Tomé Afonso (from the Algarve), who purchased the land from Beatriz Godin (her cousin and wife of the second Captain-donotário João Soares de Albergaria) who provided three alqueires of land.
  The attack and sacking of the island, in 1616, by Barbary coast pirates, taking with them captives, delayed any construction that may have occurred. Velho Arruda elaborated an event that lasted eight days, and resulted in 222 captives. Similarly, friar Agostinho de Monte Alverne credited the miraculous intervention of the Virgin, who did not want them "to see her church". Yet, the chapel must have escaped the Moors interests, because similarly, on 1 September 1675, another assault by pirates resulted in more captives (including women and children) but the building was not touched (if it existed in any recognizable form by this time). Yet, there are conflicting accounts stating that the chapel already had a defined boundary, although internally (by at least 1674) there was no retable with doors. Beatriz Godin died around 1492-1493, at that time living with her husband on the continent.
  The explorer Cristopher Columbus ordered his sailors to land to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving, during their return voyage from the New World in February 1493. It is likely that Columbus' service was one of the first Masses held in the chapel.
  The researcher Miguel Corte-Real (1995) suspects that Tomé Afonso and his wife Isabel Gonçalves were not the original founders, but likely more recent patrons of this chapel. He referred to a document listed in the Archives of Ponta Delgada (by Velho Arruda) that indicate that, at the time of their deaths, Tomé Afonso and Isabel Gonçalves left their property towards the conservation of the chapel.
  It was remodelled between 1673 and 1676. In May 1675, the villagers opened a new trail that led from the escarpment to the chapel, followed in September by a religious procession to the chapel from a cross along the Caminho Velho. It was friar Gonçalo de São José who motivated the construction of the chapel, arriving from the Convent of São Francisco between 1668–1669, guiding the establishment of the Confraria dos Escravos da Cadeinha, confirmed in 1675 by the Bishop of Angra, Friar Lourenço de Castro. The establishment of this benevolent group directly succeeded the 1675 attack of the pirates.
  By the end of the 19th century, the chapel underwent restoration (1893) resulting in the actual façade.
  It was classified as a Property of Public Interest (Portuguese: Imóvel de Interesse Público) in a resolution No.58, adopted on 17 May 2001 by the Direcção-Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (DGEMN) (General-Directorate for Buildings and National Monuments).
  An annual festival in honour of the patron occurs on 21 August.
caption: The only remnant of the original hermitage in Anjos a rock window-frame, on the site of the more recent chapel
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