Santa Maria Maior
Church of São Domingos
As 1968 turned into 1969, more than a hundred Catholics kept a vigil here against the colonial war. For that night, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen wrote the “Cantata da Paz” (Cantata of Peace): “We see, we hear and we read / We cannot ignore” (Vemos, ouvimos e lemos / Não podemos ignorar).
On 8 December 1967, Pope Paul VI made 1 January the World Day of Peace. On the night of 31 December 1968, after the Mass presided over by the Cardinal Patriarch Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, a group of lay people announced that they would stay on in this church in a vigil.1 Four of them went to tell the cardinal and the prior, and among them was a young woman, Catalina Pestana: a lady had pointed out that women did half the things in the Church, but that when someone had to speak to the bishop, it was the men who went.3
The document they read out denounced the “political commitment of the Church towards the State” and condemned the bishops’ pastoral note on the Day of Peace, which treated the “overseas peoples” as part of the “Portuguese Nation”. More than a hundred people stayed until six in the morning of 1 January 1969, discussing the war in Guinea, Angola and Mozambique.1
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen wrote the “Cantata da Paz” (Cantata of Peace) for that night — “We see, we hear and we read / We cannot ignore” (Vemos, ouvimos e lemos / Não podemos ignorar) — set to music by Francisco Fernandes and sung by Francisco Fanhais. Those present included Nuno Teotónio Pereira, Francisco de Sousa Tavares, Vítor Wengorovius, Luís Moita and Catalina Pestana.1 Sophia was there too, according to the testimonies gathered by the researcher Eloísa Aragão: Catalina Pestana remembers her and her husband, Francisco de Sousa Tavares, who argued with the prior; Nuno Teotónio Pereira says that “Sophia was there too”; Francisco Fanhais, who sang the cantata, insists that “of course Sophia was there”, although he admits he does not remember seeing her.3 According to the historian António de Araújo, the action had been planned at the home of Maria Natália and Nuno Teotónio Pereira.2
In the days that followed, the Patriarchate condemned the “tendentious character” of the vigil, and Nuno Teotónio Pereira was summoned by the PIDE. Four years later, the same Catholic circles would hold the vigil in the Capela do Rato.1
On the walks
Where it is
Map showing where Church of São Domingos is.
Dates
8 December 1967
Paul VI establishes the World Day of Peace, on 1 January.
31 December 1968
The vigil for peace begins, after Cardinal Cerejeira’s Mass.
1 January 1969
The vigil ends at six in the morning.
People connected with this place
Nearby
100 m · 5 min on foot
Palácio da Independência – headquarters of the Portuguese Youth (Mocidade Portuguesa)
Today: Palácio da Independência (Historical Society of the Independence of Portugal)
In the palace where the uprising of 1 December 1640 was planned, the Estado Novo set up the headquarters of the Portuguese Youth (Mocidade Portuguesa), the regime’s youth organisation. Abolished on 25 April 1974 itself, it made way for the Association of the Disabled of the Armed Forces.
Repression
130 m · 5 min on foot
D. Maria II National Theatre
Today: D. Maria II National Theatre
The national theatre, in the Rossio. Maria Barroso made her debut here in 1944 and was José Régio’s “Benilde”; in 1948, an order from the police and the Ministry of Education took her off this stage. The company that ran it worked under censorship until the fire of 1964.
Culture and censorshipWomenRepression
140 m · 5 min on foot
Café Chave d'Ouro
Today: A Caixa Geral de Depósitos bank branch
On the first floor of this café on the Rossio, on 10 May 1958, Humberto Delgado answered “Obviously, I’ll sack him!” (Obviamente, demito-o!) when asked what he would do with Salazar if he were elected.
Opposition140 m · 5 min on foot
Rossio (Praça de D. Pedro IV)
Today: Praça D. Pedro IV
On the Rossio, the GNR charged Humberto Delgado’s supporters in 1958 and the police put down the May Day demonstration of 1962. On 25 April 1974, Salgueiro Maia’s column passed through here, among the crowd, on its way to the Carmo.
OppositionLabourStudents
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Notes on the sources2
- When the vigil began: the night of 31 December 1968 (Commemorative Commission) or 1 January 1969 (António de Araújo). RTP Ensina speaks of Catholics who “occupied a chapel for the first time” on 1 January 1969 — this may be a different action.
- Who set the “Cantata da Paz” to music: Francisco Fernandes, according to the Commemorative Commission for the 50 Years of 25 April; Rui Paz, based on an African American spiritual, according to Francisco Fanhais and Eloísa Aragão’s thesis (Francisco Fernandes set another poem by Sophia, “Porque” (Because), which Fanhais recorded in 1970).
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Sources
- 1A Vigília de São Domingos. Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 2«A paz é possível»: algumas notas sobre o caso da Capela do Rato (António de Araújo). Lusitania Sacra, 2.ª série, 16 (2004), pp. 431-463 – Universidade Católica Portuguesa — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 3Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen: militância antifascista a partir da crise do Estado Novo (tese de doutoramento, Eloísa da Silva Aragão, 2017). Universidade de São Paulo — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 4Vigília da Capela do Rato. Wikipédia — consulted on 2 October 2026
Coordinates: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim), consultado a 2 de outubro de 2026.