Article: Beyond the Silence of the Archives - The Collection of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Lisbon and Historiographical Research

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The first mercies, founded in the early days of the Modern Era, took on an original character regarding practices of assistance to the population. Carrying out a more global action, based on the fourteen works of mercy, these lay associations were, in a way, innovative. They distinguished themselves from medieval brotherhoods by directing their actions towards a broader audience and also by a more diverse range of services they provided to the community: accompanying the sick, providing material, judicial, and spiritual support to prisoners and those sentenced to death, rescuing captives, assisting the poorest segments of the population, burying the dead, providing for orphans, and later, with the administrative oversight of local hospitals, supporting abandoned children.

This vast program of material support for the most vulnerable was complemented by practices of spiritual aid and a strong presence in daily religious life, through active participation in funerals, processions, and some of the main liturgical celebrations.

Text by FRANCISCO D’OREY MANOEL and NELSON MOREIRA ANTÃO

Director of the Historical and Technical Archive of the Historical Archive

Source: Revista Cidade Solidária no. 24
Edition: SCML, 2010