BERNARDES, MANOEL. — Portuguese writer and religious of the Congregation of the Oratory, born in Lisbon on 20 August 1644, died there on 17 August 1710.
An eloquent and profound theologian, endowed with a rich and lively imagination, in Exercícios espirituais a meditações (1686) he reveals to the soul the miseries of life, in order to exhort it to divine contemplation, while in Luz e Calor, a work published in the same year, he seeks to enlighten reason and strengthen the love of God. Of the nine chapters contained in the latter work, particularly interesting are the second, on the disturbances provoked in the spirit possessed by the demon, and the third, which constitutes a synthesis of rational psychology. In Últimos fins do homem (1728) he returns to the subject of man’s ultimate destiny; but the best-known and most highly esteemed of his works is the voluminous collection of maxims, apophthegms, and reflections entitled Nova floresta (1706–28). B. is one of the masters of Portuguese literature and the principal figure of Oratorian mysticism.
Modern editions of his works include that of Luz e Calor (Lisbon 1871), that of Nova Floresta (there 1909), edited by J. Pereira de Sampaio, and an edition of some sermons, as well as an anthology edited by A. de Campos (there 1920).