Ultimately, their origins trace back to the fourth-century Desert Fathers who led many men and women to seek the real encounter with God in the wilderness. When the empire finally opened to Christianity and created favourable condition for the practice of the Christian faith and with the appearance of an unforeseen and ever-growing alliance between political and ecclesiastical structures, the wilderness was flooded by followers of Christ. It was as if these Christians feared that the end of open political hostility would bring along the comfort and the monotony that are so inimical to the inner fight that is part and parcel of real faith. Seduced by ideals of strict compliance to the evangelical precepts, these men and women regarded the wilderness as the stage where they could test their loyalty to Christ, thus finding an alternative to martyrdom, which had been pivotal for the early church. In their experience of metoikesis, those hermits moved from the safety and comfort of ordinary life to poverty and hardship in order to find the rough roads that lead to finding themselves and God.

 

Following the example of the fourth-century Desert Fathers, the retreat into the wilderness and the abandon of worldly life in a quest for intimacy with God became the symbols of those who chose and still choose a consecrated life. The fuga mundi of the Desert Fathers would remain the paradigm of monastic life and would flourish in the Middle Ages. Monasteries became the place for all those followers of Christ who strove to sustain the prophetic vigour and the eschatological scope of the Gospel. In a context of crumbling empires and decaying values, the monasteries preserved and transmitted the cultural legacy that remains to this day heritage of all mankind.

 

However, the dedication of their lives to the evangelical demands by consecrated women and men, according to the specific charisma of their congregation, never fully isolated them from their fellow humans.

 

Indeed, the richer and the more profound the religious experience of humanity, all the more intense will be the encounter with the mystery of God. According to an old saying from ancient monarchism, a monk ‘is someone who separates himself from the others in order to unite with them.’

 

Since their early days, consecrated people have oscillated between the two polar opposites of eremitical and communal life. In the former, the individuals move away from all contact with their neighbours and fight for their sanctity in the desert. In the latter, consecrated life is lived amongst others according to a rule and under the direction of a hierarchy. At any rate, there are countless variations between the perfect isolation and the envelopment in the routine of a monastery. The same diversity can be found in the oscillation between action and contemplation or in the widely different spiritual identity and charisma that each order chooses for its own imitation of Christ.

 

Regardless of their specific way of serving God and of the specificities of times and cultures, religious women and men were present in all social events, both great and small. As it is case with all European countries, Portugal holds to this day strong signs of the invaluable contribution religious orders and congregations had in nearly areas of life.

 

Vatican II (1962-1965) renewed the role of the orders and congregations in light of its new interpretation of the mission of the church in the contemporary world. Orders were seen as a way of responding to the universal call for sanctity, a way that gave a powerful message: the radical following of Jesus Christ. By radically following Christ through a lifestyle that includes poverty, obedience and chastity, consecrated men and women challenge the idols of modern civilization and discover the path that leads to the happiness of loving, giving and serving, as opposed to greed, to worshiping pleasure or to hunger for power.

 

Regardless of their age, religious orders remain active and well integrated in the contemporary world and stand firm against the hedonism and cynicism that dominate modern-day mind. New orders with charismas that respond to the needs of our time continue to flourish. In this respect, it should be added that contemplative orders remain as relevant as the institutions geared towards active life. Their role is akin to that of a praying sentry looking out for prophetic signs, waiting for the new world that grows imperceptibly alongside the erratic adventures of mankind.

 

Contrary to what could be expected, Portuguese scholarship and public debate have not paid due attention to the extremely relevant social and cultural role that the religious orders and congregations play and have played in the life of the country. As such, little has been made to understand the full implication of this important social fact. While various factors may have contributed to such neglect, the conflicted relationship between church and state for most of the nineteenth century and after the instauration of the Republic in 1910 certainly played a part. Additionally, the dissolution of the monasteries and the dispersion of their artistic, bibliographic and archival heritage, along with the confiscation of their assets and lands hampered the historiography of the orders, as its practitioners had (and sometimes still do) to handle a disorderly pile of poorly conditioned documents without the help of inventories. A weak historiography, informed by contemporary polemic and lacking heuristic support, did not go beyond a prejudice-laden and short-sighted perception of the roles played by the religious orders and congregations

 

The decision to hold a conference about religious orders in Portugal during the official commemorations of the first century of the Republic, aims at changing age-old neglect and at renewing the scholarly studies about these institutions in Portuguese history. Furthermore, the conference will emphasise one of the trademark implications of the First Republic, namely the new configuration of the relationship between church(es) and state. Lastly, this conference aims at stimulating the reflection on all issues surrounding the very history of the orders and congregations, both within the specific period of the First Republic and within the long, complex history of the orders’ presence in the country.

 

Under the heading ‘Religious Orders in Portugal – memory, presence and diasporas’, this conference aims at the following: