“Vida e Mercês que Deus fez ao venerável D. Leão de Noronha” : do santo de corte ao santo de família na Época Moderna em Portugal

Resumo

Having initiated his noviciate within the Franciscan Order, D. Leão de Noronha  (1500-1572)  had to abandon his vocation in order to succeed his father as the head of the family household. Already as a married man and father, he devoted his life to prayer in a close spiritual relationship with the Dominican friars of Lisbon -Fr. Luis de Sottomayor,  OP, the well-known exegete, referred to him as a saint-, pledged his fortune to the assistance of the poor, and even himself would tend to and heal  those  in suffering  with his  own hands.  And  this he did  but,  conscious  of  his family heritage, he did not forsake the privileges he was entitled to as a distinguished landlord. His remarkable biography  (which includes the miracles  performed  during his  lifetime  that  gave  him  the  standing  of  a  living  saint)   was  written  by  his granddaughter's  husband,  Jerónimo de Melo Coutinho,  c. 1623. In this  biography, the hagiographer is commited to preserving the fama sanctitatis  of D. Leão, but also in presenting  a model  os sanctify  for  ''those  responsible  for the orientation  of  the marital state". With this research we will attempt to interpret the satements, remarks and  silences  that can  be perceived  in  the hagiography  written,  above  all,  for  the descendants of the "reverend D. Leão".