Gabriel Malagrida

Gabriel Malagrida (18 September or 6 December 1689 – September 1761) was an Italian Jesuit missionary in the Portuguese colony of Brazil and influential figure in the political life of the Lisbon Royal Court who described the devastating 1755 Lisbon earthquake as retribution prompted by God's wrath.

Malagrida was famously caught up in the Távora affair and executed as a blasphemer and heretic. When he could not be convicted for high treason, the Portuguese Prime Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal, whose brother served as the head Inquisitor, had him executed for heresy.

Gabriel Malagrida was born in 1689 in Menaggio, Italy, the son of Giacomo Malagrida, a doctor, and wife Angela Rusca. He entered the Jesuit order at Genoa in 1711. In 1721 he set out from Lisbon and arrived on the Island of Maranhão towards the end of that year. From there he proceeded to Brazil, where he worked as a missionary for 28 years, and developed a reputation for both holiness and powerful preaching. In 1749 he was sent to Lisbon, where he was received with honour by King João V of Portugal. In 1751 he returned to Brazil, but was recalled to Lisbon in 1753 upon the request of Marianna of Austria, the queen dowager and mother of King José I of Portugal, who had succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father.

Malagrida's influence at the Court of Lisbon met with deep hostility from the prime minister, Carvalho, the future Marquês de Pombal. Carvalho was attempting to rebuild Lisbon following the 1755 earthquake, which Malagrida preached was the punishment of a just God on a sinful people. Carvalho resented the implicit criticism of the government, and persuaded King José to banish Malagrida to Setúbal in November 1756 and had all Jesuits removed from the Court.

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