The Santas Casas da Misericórdia

("The Holy Houses of the Mercy")

 

Beautiful, legendary and eternal Lisbon of Ulysses,

Planted at the end of the lands of the Old World,

To discover the paths of the seas,

And the breeze born in the Iberian fields,

Blew her ships that left the Tejo river,

Heading toward the vast, unknown and feared ocean.

 

Our Lady of the Piety Chapel,

On the fifteenth day of August, 1498,

Lady Leonor of Lencastre established

The first Fraternity of Mercy,

A model for thousands of Santas Casas,

The Misericórdias of the Lusitanian saga.

 

Santa Casa of Santos with Bras Cubas,

Of Salvador with Tomé de Souza,

Of Espírito Santo and Rio with Anchieta,

Of Olinda with John Pais Barreto,

Of São Paulo and many others,

Pioneering institutions in philanthropy

And European medical teaching in the country.

 

Venerable Houses of Father Vieira,

Friar Gaspar, the Andrada brothers,

Clemente Pereira, José do Patrocínio,

Martins Fontes, Arnaldo de Carvalho,

Augusto Paulino, Cerqueira Falcão,

And other immortals of the Misericórdias,

Heroes of our national history.

 

Caring for seamen, settlers and natives,

Explorers, masters and slaves,

Monarchists and republicans,

Employers, workers and the unemployed,

Committed to the unfortunate.

 

Santas Casas da Misericórdia,

Half a millennium of history, humanism,

Science, art and solidarity,

God's deeds for the needy,

Humankind’s greatest creations.

 

Henrique S. Ivamoto, MD

Editor Acta Medica Misericordiæ

 

 

REF.: Ivamoto HS, Morales R, Ivamoto LS, Souza ESMV: The Santas Casas da Misericórdia: five centuries of philanthropy. Acta Medica Misericordiæ 1998;  1:11-13.

 

The Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Santos, the first Brazilian hospital, founded in 1543 by Braz Cubas. Painting by Benedicto Calixto.