VIEIRA DE MATTOS, MANUEL. - Bishop, b. at Poiares (Portugal) on 22 March 1861, d. at Braga on 28 Sept. 1932.
Ordained priest in 1883, after a long and fruitful pastoral ministry he was consecrated titular archbishop of Miletus and appointed vicar general deputy of the patriarchate of Lisbon (1899). Four years later he was entrusted with
the diocese of Guarda, which he governed with intrepid constancy in particularly difficult years for Portuguese Catholicism. Recognized leader of the Catholic party in an age dominated by Freemasonry, he was twice imprisoned and three times violently driven from his see between 1910 and 1913, but to these vexations he always opposed the firmness of his spirit and the zeal of his episcopal dignity. In 1913 Pope Pius X promoted him to the archiepiscopal see of Braga, primatial see of Portugal, which V. held until his death, for nearly twenty years. Once the persecution of the Church had abated, the archbishop carried out valuable work to rekindle the faith among his flock; particularly noteworthy was the initiative, approved by the Apostolic See in 1919, to restore in his cathedral the ancient Braga liturgy, once widely diffused in Portugal. He also devoted himself, with great success, to social and cultural problems, as well as to assistance for the indigent classes.