Dom Henrique José Reed da Silva Letters [1883-1928]

This collection includes letters and other related items surrounding the life and history of Bishop Henrique José Reed da Silva (1854-1930), the titular Bishop of Trajanopolis and Bishop Emeritus of São Tomé de Meliapor who was also a pastor for Saint Anthony's Church in Lowell for 13 years (1911-1924). These documents and records were scanned and donated by the Arquivo Histórico do Patriarcado de Lisboa (AHPL), where the physical collection remains. These records cover an international purview of Portuguese and Portuguese American history through the lens of Bishop da Silva's life and travels. Here, you will find papers created by or about Bishop da Silva, as well as a group of letters sent to Bishop da Silva over the course of his life from family members, political figures and leaders, titled officials of the Catholic Church, and other members of the Catholic Church and Portuguese communities all over the world.

Bibliographical Note
Biography written and provided by the Arquivo Histórico do Patriarcado de Lisboa. Translation and small edits made by the PADA archivist. Additions in brackets.

Bishop Henrique José Reed da Silva was born in Lisbon to Sebastião José da Silva and Elisa Maria Reed da Silva on January 19th, 1854. He was baptized on February 5th, 1854 in Lisbon's Santa Isabel parish.

He attended the College of Overseas Missions in Cernache do Bonjardim. Destined for an ecclesiastical life, Bishop da Silva was ordained and, after taking the Order of the Presbyte in 1879, he left for Luanda the following year to become the secretary for the Bishop of Angola and Congo, Dom José Sebastião Neto. In this bishopric, he served as the parson of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Parish, as a chaplain for a hospital, and as a professor of humanities for the seminary. In 1881, he assumed the position of general vicar and, in 1882, he took charge of the diocesan government for a period. He also became the precentor of the See, and in 1883, attained the position of Vicar Capitular.

Named the prelate of Mozambique on March 6^th 1884, Bishop da Silva would eventually be elevated to the Titular Bishop of Philadelphia [of Arabia] in the consistory on the 27^th of that same month. The episcopal congregation took place in the Church of Santa Catarina in Lisbon [also referred to as the Church of the Convent of Paulistas] on May 4^th at the hand of the Bishop of Portalegre, Dom José Maria da Silva Ferrão de Carvalho Martens. This title was made effective upon Bishop da Silva's formal entrance into Mozambique on January 1^st of 1885. He was placed in charge of the government of the province and, in October, he organized the activity for the pastoral visit—having, at that time, toured Kenya and the archipelago of Tanzania.

In the apostolic brief from December 1^st of that year, Bishop da Silva was dismissed from the prefecture of Mozambique and named the coadjutor of the Archbishop of Goa, primate of the East.

On November 25^th of 1886, Bishop da Silva was named the Bishop of São Tomé de Meliapor [Mylapore] in India, and he was preconized by the Pope on March 14^th of that following year. During his decade-long episcopate, he created two newspapers, established a diocese seminary, maintained a high school in Calcutta with a boarding school for girls and another that provided entry to the university, established orphanages and nursing homes for the elderly, founded a pharmaceutical laboratory that provided treatment to those in need, and ordered the construction of a neo-Gothic cathedral.

Bishop da Silva turned in the miter of Mylapore in 1897 and, subsequently, the Holy See granted Bishop da Silva the title of Bishop of Trajanopolis in Phrygia in 1898. From 1907 to 1909, Bishop da Silva traveled to California, exercising his ministry among Portuguese communities. He visited Hawaii in 1908 and in 1910, continued [his travels] on to Mexico. However, it was in the year 1911 that he settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, within the archdiocese of Boston, to administer the Saint Anthony Church of the Portuguese, remaining there until 1924.

He returned to Portugal in 1925, after a stay in Canada and in New York where, for health reasons, he was hospitalized in Saint Vincent’s Hospital. Afterwards, he traveled to the Eternal City [Rome] and, five years later, on October 6^th of 1930, Henrique José Reed da Silva—the titular Bishop of Trajanopolis and Bishop Emeritus of São Tomé de Meliapor—passed away in Lisbon, where his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery of Prazeres in a tomb gifted by the Third Order of Saint Francis.