Aleixo de Menezes
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Aleixo de Menezes (January 25, 1559—May 3, 1617) was Archbishop of Goa, Archbishop of Braga, Portugal, and Spanish viceroy of Portugal.
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[edit] Biographical sketch
Aleixo was born in 1559. It is known that he joined the Augustinians. He was consecrated Archbishop of Goa in 1595.
In 1599 under his leadership, the Synod of Diamper brought about the union of the Saint Thomas Christians with the Roman Catholic Church, severing them from the Church of the East/Chaldean Church. Following the Synod of Diamper Aleixo de Menezes he served as the Principal Consecrator of Francisco Rodríguez, S.J. as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Angamalé for the Saint Thomas Christians.
In 1612 Aleixo de Menezes was appointed Archbishop of Braga, Portugal. He was Spanish viceroy of Portugal from 1612 to 1615. He died in 1617.
[edit] A questionable legacy
Aleixo de Menezes, laboring under the shadow of the Reformation and the Council of Trent, was unwilling to give an inch to the customs of the Saint Thomas Christians. Instead, he forged ahead with the latinisation of the St. Thomas Christians started by the Portuguese in the early Sixteenth Century.
In general the Christians of Saint Thomas were happy to be united to the Roman Church.[citation needed] The result of the synod, however, was unfortunate. As the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) says:
The only case in which an ancient Eastern rite has been wilfully romanized is that of the Uniat Malabar Christians, where it was not Roman authority but the misguided zeal of Alexius de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, and his Portuguese advisers at the Synod of Diamper (1599) which spoiled the old Malabar Rite.
The validity of the Synod of Diamper has been questioned in history by many scholars. In addition, the theological necessity of the changes made there is not clear.[1]
The Syrian Christians of Eastern churches, independent of Rome, view Menezes as the harbinger of the darkest era in their history. Indeed Menezes and Vasco da Gama are still seen as foreign villains who imposed Roman authority on a church with apostolic foundations and in ecclesiastical communion with Middle Eastern Christianity. The Synod of Diamper is viewed as the death knell of Nasrani independence.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Paul Pallath, The Synod of Diamper : valid or invalid?, The Synod of Diamper Revisited, Edited by George Nedungatt S.J., Pontifico Instituto Orientale, Rome, 2001, P. 199
