The graduate João Rodrigues Rego da Rocha would have been the first Permanent Abbot of Priscos to stand out within the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Braga. Vicar of the parish of Priscos since 1609, he would have been appointed the seventh Rector of the Saint Peter’s Seminary by the Archbishop D. Frei Agostinho de Jesus (1588-1609) in 1606, following the resignation of his predecessor, Father Jorge Queimado. After the death of said Archbishop on 25 November 1609, the Chapter ruling the Archdiocese in sede vacante had removed him from office for reasons which are still unknown.

          The new Archbishop, D. Frei Aleixo de Menezes, also member of the Augustinian order, would later reintegrate him in to the position of Rector of the Saint Peter’s Seminary on 23 July 1612, a mission he fulfilled until 1618, year in which he exclusively devoted himself to the incumbency of the church of Priscos (Ferreira, 1934: 576).

          During the periods in which he served at Saint Peter’s Seminary, he would have been replaced by the temporary priest Domingos Lopes. He must have passed away no later than 1633, the year during which a new Permanent Abbot was registered at Santiago de Priscos.

Although not many facts are known about his life, the analysis of the documents left by history allows us to connect him to an intense pastoral activity, at a time in which the society of Braga was significantly dynamic. Often quoted in the contemporary parish documents, Mateus Pereira Pacheco would have been appointed, in 1717, by the Archbishop D. Rodrigo de Moura Telles and designated “Appellate Judge”, due to the fact that he was Superintendent Judge at Casa do Despacho (Dispatch House). It was also during his mission that the old parish church of São Tomé de Moimenta would have been demolished, definitely unifying this parish to Priscos in 1599, given that in 1741 the parish summoned the couple Nicolau de Sousa and Josefa Maria to build a chapel with the invocation of São Tomé (Saint Thomas) on their farm, located in the territory of said extinct parish and, probably, in the same place where its temple had previously been installed. In 1723, 1724 and 1726 he was appointed Visitor of the Comarca of Vermoim and Faria by the Archbishop D. Rodrigo de Moura Telles (Amorim, 1969). Before that, in 1720, he had already been appointed Visitor of the Archdeaconry of Barroso and, in the following year, of the Archdeaconry of Labruge and the Archpriesthood of Loureda, Comarca of Valença. In 1720, he was also appointed to visit the churches of Basto belonging to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and, five years later, he would have visited the Schoolmaster of Braga.

The fact that Mateus Pereira Pacheco was appointed so many times to the mission of Visitor attests, not only his recognition and prestige before the hierarchy, but also the relevance of the Parish of Priscos in the context of the Archdiocese, as the role of Visitor would only be assigned to priests with a higher statutory position. The parish of Santiago de Priscos hosted the presentation of the Mitre, which means it should only be visited by the Archbishop himself, and so its Permanent Abbot was not subject to the examination of another priest.

          Gaspar Manuel Teixeira de Carvalho was appointed Permanent Abbot of Santiago de Priscos on 20 January 1787. His name went down in history as the person responsible for the construction of a new parish temple.

          Arriving in the community at a time in which for almost two decades the homilies took place in the churchyard, due to the lack of space to accommodate the faithful inside the temple, it became imperative to build a new church. Three years after his arrival, the Visiting priest required him to build a bell tower, because the sound of the bells, placed on a simple steeple, could not be heard in every corner of the parish.

          Calling on the community to replace the ancestral parish church, which, at the time, was “too prisca, small and dark, and not able to accommodate the parish people”, the Abbot is said to have been the main driving force of this endeavour. The generous donation of 3,000 cruzados by someone who was born in Priscos and had emigrated to the United States of America occurred thanks to his intervention.

          The works would have begun in 1796 and the temple’s consecration took place two years later, probably under the command of the Primate Archbishop, D. Frei Caetano Brandão. However, the works had not yet been concluded and the main chapel was still unfinished in 1799. During the following year, the bell tower would be built and the construction of the sacristy would begin.

          Certainly due, not only to his recognition amongst the clergy, but particularly to his intense work in the parish of Priscos, he was appointed Chanter of the Chapter of the See in 1818. It is not known whether this implied his resignation from the position of Permanent Abbot of Priscos, although we believe he stayed on for a few more years.

In the spring of 1846, the region of Minho was simmering due to the new health laws, causing the conspiratorial structure, which had already been delineated since 1843, to emerge on the basis of a popular mobilisation, supported by many soldiers devoted to King D. Miguel, who was defeated in the 1832-34 civil war. The so-called Revolution of Maria da Fonte supported the embodiment of this movement, causing protest guerrillas to take place in many villages. Leading these guerrillas and manoeuvring such social unrest were mostly priests, soldiers and rural landowners (Brissos, 1997). With the people of Minho openly siding with King D. Miguel, any discontent caused by the successive liberal governments revealed to be an opportunity for uprising.

It was within this context that Father Luís António Pereira took action. Abbot of Priscos since 1824, he was one of the most active priests in the protests led by General Reginald MacDonell, an old military commander of King D. Miguel, striving for special protagonism during the 1846 Miguelist insurrection.

According to a testimony by João Baptista Vieira Gomes, when General MacDonell arrived from Guimarães, “the force of the Abbot of Priscos moved forward” and alongside the soldiers “with acclamations from the people that were gathered in rivalry amidst cheers, bell chimes and rockets”.

Even before Father Manuel Joaquim Machado Rebelo took the reins of the parish, one other Abbot became famous, not because of his culinary gifts, but because of his leadership and martial skills. As it happened with other priests of Minho, with the greatest example being Father Casimiro who ruled the people of Vieira do Minho, Father Luís António Pereira stands out among other guerrilla priests such as “Father António Teixeira (from Quintas), Father João Baptista Rosa (Codeçoso), Father António Alves (Cepeda), Father Jerónimo (Portela do Abade), Father Francisco da Pequenina (Aboim), Father João dos Reis (priest of Aboim), Father António (brother of the Vicar of Aboim) and the priest known as Father João do Cano, that is, the minorist, João Baptista Rebelo” (Brissos, 1997: 125).

Also mentioned in Portugal Antigo e Moderno and in Minho Pittoresco, this Abbot was so remarkable that Camilo Castelo Branco mentions him as “the brave”, taking inspiration from him for one of the characters of his novel The Brazilian Girl from Prazens. Nevertheless, the reputation of this Abbot would fade thanks to the unusual culinary skills of Father Manuel Joaquim Machado Rebelo.

Camilo Castelo Branco

Father Manuel António Álvares Pereira was one of the most notable Abbots of Priscos. Permanent Abbot of Priscos since 1854, he was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Braga on 25 October 1855 by the Archbishop D. Pedro Paulo de Figueiredo da Cunha e Mello.

As a priest who enjoyed the Archbishop’s special trust, in 1853 he ruled the Archdiocese on his behalf and, two years later, he was appointed as the writer of his will (Ferreira, IV, 1934: 130).

Before Priscos, we know that he had been the Abbot of São João do Mosteiro, in Vieira do Minho. He was also responsible for the chair of Canonical Institutions at Saint Peter’s Seminary immediately after its reopening, following a forced closure by the liberal regime.

Despite holding the important position of Vicar General, it appears that he did not integrate the Chapter of the Primatial See.

Father João Torres Campos is, since 2006, the current Abbot of Priscos. Born in Cabeceiras de Basto in 1976, he was ordained as a priest in 2003. He participated in a pastoral mission in the north of Mozambique for two years, together with Father Jorge Vilaça, with whom he would later found the Oeste/Veiga pastoral unit. He then shared his mission with Father Manuel Quinta.

In the very first year as the priest of Priscos, he started the Live Nativity Scene, an initiative that takes place on the parish grounds and aims to bring together the community and spread the true meaning of Christmas.
As the parish is very large and divided by a national road, with very disperse hamlets, the Live Nativity Scene was intended as an opportunity to create a new meeting place for the community to socialise and get acquainted. After the pudding, the Live Nativity Scene put Priscos back on the map. With six hundred extras throughout 90 sceneries, the Live Nativity Scene of Priscos welcomes tens of thousands of visitors each year and is subject to notable media coverage.

In 2012, within the scope of the European Youth Capital in Braga, he organised the Village of Religions, an ecumenical initiative that gathered 32 creeds in the same space, aiming to contribute to the peaceful coexistence among diverse religions.