Denomination Roman Catholic | Died 25 January 1908, Old Goa | |
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Born January 20, 1846
El Puerto de Santa María, Spain ( 1846-01-20 ) | ||
Dom Sebastião António Valente (January 20, 1846 - January 25, 1908) was a Catholic archbishop and Portuguese colonial administrator, the first Patriarch of the East Indies.
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Biography
Born in El Puerto de Santa María, province of Cadiz (Spain), he was the son of Maria João Valente and Bridget Medeiros, a native of Mértola, Portugal. He attended primary school in Beja, graduated in Coimbra and taught in the Seminaries of Viseu and Santarém. He was ordained a deacon on September 23, 1871, and on May 25, 1872 ordained a priest.
Consecrated Archbishop
He was appointed Archbishop of Goa on 4 August 1881, and ordained bishop on 25 September 1881. His consecration as the Archbishop of Goa and the Primate of the East was by Cardinal Gaetano Aloisi Masella, Titular Archbishop of Neocaesarea in Ponto. The Principal Co-Consecrators were Archbishop António José de Freitas Honorato, Titular Archbishop of Mitylene and Bishop José Dias Correia de Carvalho, Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde.
In 1886, with the elevation of the Goan archdiocese to the position of the Patriarchate of the East Indies, he became the first Patriarch of the East.
Chairman of the Governing Council
He exercised, in addition, for seven times, the functions of the Chairman of the Government of Portuguese India—Presidente do Conselho de Governo do Estado Português da Índia (1886, 1889, 1892, 1894, 1897 and 1905).
He died while in office of the Patriarch, in January 25, 1908.
NewAdvent.org says: "In recent times one provincial council was held (1894) by Dom Antonio S. Valente, in which seventy-nine decrees were framed."