4 - Irish nuns in Iberia: the Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso, Lisbon

Summary

Established in Lisbon in 1639, the Irish Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso holds an important position in the history of Irish religious foundations in Europe, being the first continental convent founded expressly for Irish women. That Iberia’s premier port city was the chosen location for the new foundation is not surprising. Operating under the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs between 1580 and 1640, the kingdom of Portugal was a bastion of Catholicism in Europe and played a central role in the expansion and consolidation of the Counter-Reformation. Thus, it offered favourable conditions for the reception of Catholic religious migrants and as a result had been a popular destination for Irish and English émigrés since the late sixteenth century. By 1630 there were already two Irish colleges established in the city; the college of St Patrick’s, a seminary for the education of Irish secular priests and clerical students, established in 1590 by Fr John Howlin, SJ; and the Dominican college of Corpo Santo (est. 1632), whose founder, the Irish Dominican and diplomat, Fr Daniel O’Daly (1595–1662), was also responsible for the foundation of the Bom Sucesso convent seven years later. Seventeenth-century Lisbon was likewise a receptive venue for migrant communities of women religious. By the end of the sixteenth-century at least two communities of nuns with origins outside Iberia were resident in the city; a community of Dutch Poor Clares who established the convent of Nossa Senhora da Quietação in the south-west of Lisbon as early as 1582, and the English Brigittine nuns of Syon abbey, who were residing in the city by 1594.

This chapter explores the history of the Irish Dominican convent of Bom Sucesso in the seventeenth century. The foundation marked a major milestone in the history of Irish women religious in early modern Europe and in the history of Irish–Portuguese diplomatic relations, yet it has been largely overlooked in recent scholarship on early modern Irish–Iberian connections. Established at a time of political turmoil in Portugal, when the newly established house of Braganza sought to assert independence from Spain, this chapter examines the circumstances that led to the foundation of the Irish convent in 1639 and highlights the important role played by the Irish Dominican friar and diplomat ‘extraordinaire’, Fr Daniel O’Daly in securing the success of the foundation.