Jose (Archbishop of Braga)

Origin and youth

José Braganca was the bastard ( port. Bastardo , illegitimate son) of Pedro II of Portugal , the youngest of his children, the prince's mother was Francisco Clara da Silva (born 1650), the beautiful daughter of the Lisbon coop. By the time the prince was born, the king was twice a widower, his first wife, Maria Francis of Savoy, died in 1683, and the second, Maria Sophia of Neuburg, in 1699. The absence of the queen made it possible for Francisco to claim that the king promised to enter into a legal marriage with her and demand the fulfillment of a promise, which, however, was never fulfilled. José was born on May 6, 1703 at the Monastery of Saint Clara in Lisbon. Together with the king's other illegitimate son, Don Miguel (1699-1724), he was incognito brought up in the house of the royal secretary, Bartolomeu di Souza Mezia. Don Miguel, whose mother was an aristocrat, was officially recognized by the king as early as 1704, having received the title of "His Highness", and, replacing Pedra II, Juan V , arranged in 1715 the marriage of Miguel with Ana Maria-Louise, Marquise Aronshis, the heiress of the rich and titled kind. Due to the “low” descent of José’s mother, he did not receive any titles, but his titular brother, who became the Duke of Lafoyns after the wedding, continued to have friendly feelings for José and spend a lot of time in his company. On January 13, 1724, while walking along the Tagus River , the longboat on which the brothers headed towards Lisbon turned over, Jose managed to escape, and Miguel drowned, his body was found only on February 5. The death of his brother was a big blow for Jose, who chose a church career under the influence of this event. In 1725, don José entered the Jesuit University of the Holy Spirit ( port Universidade do Espírito Santo ) in Évora , where he studied philosophy and theology and graduated on July 26, 1733 with a doctorate in theology .

Archbishop of Braga

In 1739, he occupied the chair of Archbishop of Braga (the election was approved by the Holy See on December 19, 1740 , consecrated on February 5, 1741), which has been vacant since 1732. João V, the half-brother of José, was already trying to take control of this archbishopric, very significant for the population of the country, by organizing in 1732 the election of his friend Cardinal Juan da Mota y Silva, who was later the first minister of the kingdom in 1736-1747 but the pope did not approve the election. The department of Braga is one of the most influential on the Iberian Peninsula, it was subject to eight bishops in Portugal, in addition, the archbishop of Braga had the right of primacy over all of Spain . Prince Jose occupied the pulpit until his death in 1756, he was buried in the Cathedral of Braga , and his successor in the position of archbishop was another bastard - Gaspard Braganza, the late son of Juan V. Between 1744 - 1752, the famous “under construction” were built under the patronage of Jose Braganza Seven springs of St. Vito ”( port. Sete Fontes de S. Victor ), the water supply system of the city of Braga, which supplied the city with drinking water for several centuries, until 1914 and recognized in 2003 as a national architectural monument.