The Portuguese Social Care System in the Modern Age: An Originality Case in Catholic Europe?

Abstract

Until recently it has been stated, without support of research, that the Church secured the social care system in Portugal in the Modern Age. Three reasons can explain this mistake: because in the Middle Ages the Church's charitable activity was the most visible and structured one, even, in fact, we do not know what was his real accomplishment; because it was so in many Catholic countries in the Ancien Régime; finally, because it is common to think that Misericórdias or Santas Casas or Santas Casas de Misericórdia (literally Holy Houses of Mercy) were ecclesiastical institutions. The predisposition of Misericórdias to ensure most types of assistance is well estab- lished: running almost all the hospitals, ensuring food assistance, medical, legal and spiritual support to prisoners; granting dowries to poor orphans; supporting ashamed poor; subsidizing transportation for poor people, distributing alms, burying the poor for free, praying for their souls; etc. Only foundlings and captives escaped to Misericórdias’s monopoly.