Maria de Lourdes Belchior

Maria de Lourdes Belchior Pontes • Großes Verdienstkreuz • GCRB • Officier • GCIH • ComSE • GCIP • (9 July 1923 - 4 June 1998), was a Portuguese writer, poet, professor, and diplomat who lived in Portugal, Brazil, France and the United States of America.

Early life

Born in Lisbon on the 9th of July 1923, the General Register Office switched the order of her last names, placing the maternal surname Pontes last, but she would become known by her paternal last name Belchior, as she thought it was appropriate.

Belchior attended the all-girls school, Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho, where she became known as the “Carolina Micaelis” for her academic capacities.

In 1946, she graduated in romantic philology with a dissertation entitled “Da Poesia by Frei Agostinho da Cruz - Attempt at Stylistic Analysis.” After a short period teaching alongside Portuguese poet Sebastião da Gama in a local school, in 1947 she accepted a position offered by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon as Second Assistant.

First woman to hold title at the University of Porto Between 1950 and 1952, she was a Reader at the Catholic Institute of Paris. One year later she received her doctorate with a thesis on Frei António das Chagas - "A Man and a 17th Century Style" In 1959 she obtained the title of Extraordinary Teacher becoming the first woman to hold the position of Extraordinary Teacher ( Professor catedrático) the highest academic office in Portugal and Brazil. She was awarded the position through a competition in which she presented herself with a work on Rodrigues Lobo's Poetic Itinerary. All members of the jury, who were to remain in history as the biggest figures in contemporary Portuguese culture, decided in her favour. The jury included Vitorino Nemésio, Orlando Ribeiro, among other distinguished figures and was headed by Professor Marcello Caetano, future Prime Minister of Portugal during the last stage of the Estado Novo regime. accepting the position in order to promote a larger number of scholarships for cultural exchanges between Portuguese and Brazilian students, which she achieved through competitions.

During her time in Brazil she travelled extensively, holding conferences and guiding debates on issues of her speciality.

Presidency of Instituto Camões She returned to Portugal in 1966, where she was first advisor to the board and later President (1970-1973) of Instituto Camões, formerly Instituto de Alta Cultura. She was a member of the Fulbright Commission, overseeing the administration of the Fulbright Program in 1974. Alongside Malaca Casteleiro, Lindley Cintra and Fernando Cristóvão, Maria de Lourdes formed part of the Commission responsible for creating the new Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990. Years later, in May 1998, the university awarded her the honoris causa doctorate. She rapidly chose to renounce all political appointments and went on to co-found a weekly publication, Nova Terra, signing as Director a large part of the editorials.

Sorbonne She moved to Paris in 1976, where she spent the academic year as associate professor at Sorbonne University. Vitorino Nemésio and her sister Hélène de Beauvoir, along with Michel Chandeigne.

She was also connected with Lindley Cintra, David Mourão-Ferreira, Eduardo Lourenço, Antonio Tabucchi, Carlos Pinto Coelho, Lídia Jorge, Vergílio Ferreira, José Jorge Letria, Vasco Graça Moura, Nuno Júdice, Fernando Namora, Oliveira Marques, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Maria Velho da Costa, Mário Dionísio, Helena Cidade Moura, Sommer Ribeiro, Jorge Silva Melo.

Death Her death, which occurred on June 4, 1998, was described by the president of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Ferrer Correia as "the loss of one of the most notable figures in Portuguese culture".

The estate of Belchior was largely donated by her sister, Maria Helena Pontes Belchior, in part to the National Library of Portugal

In Portugal, the University of Porto organized, on December 11, the congress "Maria de Lourdes Belchior: the woman and the books," at the Faculty of Arts, with the participation of Inês Belchior, a relative of the honoree, and contributions from Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins, Arnaldo Saraiva, and José Adriano de Carvalho, among others. A volume titled Maria de Lourdes Belchior: a Mulher e os Livros, authored by several of the contributors present at the congress, was subsequently published in April 2026, further contributing to the study and dissemination of her work.

The National Library of Portugal, in Lisbon, also held a documentary exhibition on Maria de Lourdes Belchior, from December 20 to March 30, 2024.

Publications

Belchior was the pioneer of stylistics in Portugal. She was particularly interested in the 16th and above all the 17th centuries, the baroque period, publishing Frei António das Chagas – um Homem e Um Estilo do Sec. XVIII (1953) and Itinerário Poético de Rodrigues Lobo (1959). The rehabilitation of the literary era is largely due to her work as a writer and scholar. (1985) and Cancioneiro para Nossa Senhora: Poemas para uma Via Sacra (1988).

The author's complete biography prepared by Ernesto Rodrigues of the University of Lisbon contains 248 publications.

The following volumes of studies were dedicated to the late Maria de Lourdes: O Amor das Letras e das Gentes. In Honor of Maria de Lourdes Belchior Pontes, edited by João Camilo dos Santos and Frederick G. Williams, Center for Portuguese Studies, University of California, Santa Bárbara, 1995; Romanesque. Revista de Literatura, 1/2, Lisboa, Cosmos, 1993; Archives of the Calouste Gulbenkian Cultural Center, XXXVII, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon - Paris, 1998.