José Agostinho de Macedo

Who was José Agostinho de Macedo?

José Agostinho de Macedo, is a Portuguese poet and prose writer, was born at Beja of plebeian family, and studied Latin and rhetoric with the Oratorians in Lisbon, Portugal. He became professed as an Augustinian in 1778, but owing to his turbulent character he spent a great part of his time in prison,and was constantly being transferred from one convent to another, finally giving up the monastic habit to live licentiously in the capital.

In 1792 he was unfrocked, but by the aid of powerful friends he obtained a papal brief which secularized him and permitted him to retain his ecclesiastical status. Taking to journalism and preaching he now made for himself a substantial living and a unique position. In a short time he was recognized as the leading pulpit orator of the day, and in 1802 he became one of the royal preachers.

Macedo was the first to introduce from abroad and to cultivate didactic and descriptive poetry, the best example of which is his notable transcendental poem Meditation.