Maria de Lourdes Belchior Pontes


Maria de Lourdes Belchior Pontes ComIH •GCIH • GCIP, was a Portuguese writer, professor and poet who lived in Portugal, Brazil, France, Germany and the United States of America..

Life

Born in Lisbon, 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.
Institut catholique de Paris and 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, through a competition in which she presented herself with a work on Rodrigues Lobo's Poetic Itinerary. In 1969 she took on the position of Full Professor at University of Porto, where she was the chair for the Portuguese Literature I at the Faculty of Literature for a year. Maria de Lourdes was also involved with the Inter-University Centre for the History of Spirituality based there.
Portuguese Embassy in Brazil
Between 1963 and 1966, she served as Cultural Adviser at the Embassy of Portugal in Brazil, a country she travelled extensively, holding conferences and guiding debates on issues of her speciality.
Presidency of Instituto de Alta Cultura
She returned to Portugal in 1966, where she was an advisor to the board of the Instituto de Alta Cultura, present-day Camoes Institute, for four years. Later, between 1970 and 1973, she was president of the Instituto de Alta Cultura. During this time, she was made Full Professor at the University of Porto where she created the Department of Roman Philology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto. In 1996 the university granted her an honoris causa doctorate.
Co-founder of Nova University Lisbon
Also at this time, she was a member of the Founding Council of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa alongside Eduardo Lourenço and Luciana Stegagno Picchio, between 1973-1975. Years later, in May 1998, the university awarded her the honoris causa doctorate.
Secretary of State for Culture
In the awake of the Carnation Revolution, Maria de Lourdes Belchior was asked to form part of the new government. Between May and December 1974, she assumed the position of Secretary of State for Culture and Scientific Research. During this time it was noted that she was the only woman in the Portuguese government. She rapidly chose to renounce all political appointments and went on to co-found a weekly publication, 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.
University of California
In 1978, Maria de Lourdes was invited to replace the Portuguese writer and friend Jorge de Sena heading the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and presiding over the Jorge de Sena Center for Portuguese Studies at the University of California. She demonstrated her modesty once again by insisting on a salary below what her predecessor Jorge de Sena had earned. Maria de Lourdes for ten years led the teaching in the field of Lusophone literatures and cultures at the University of Santa Barbara, working alongside Frederick G. Williams.
Director Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Seventeen years after having refused the position, Maria de Lourdes finally accepted to replace José-Augusto França as Director of the Portuguese Cultural Center of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris.
She was Director from 1989 to 1998, during which she promoted the dissemination of Portuguese culture in France: she developed the foundation's library, promoted publications, held numerous exhibitions, subsidised the translation of Portuguese authors into French, and held events such as the tribute to the Brazilian writer and friend Jorge Amado, the tribute to Emmanuel Nunes on the occasion of the Autumn Festival in Paris, the debate with the architect Siza Vieira on the “reconstruction of Chiado after the 1989 fire” and the conference “Portugal in the work of António Tabucchi”, as well as nights of debate dedicated to the filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, such as the exhibition of “Non ou a vã gloria de mandar”.
Pope John Paul II
Maria de Lourdes Belchior belonged to the secular Grail movement, a Christian-inspired movement, in the 1960s. In 1990 she was appointed by Pope John Paul II as a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Works

Maria de Lourdes Belchior was the pioneer of stylistics in Portugal. She was particularly interested in the 16th and above all the 17th centuries, the baroque period. The rehabilitation of the literary era is largely due to her work as a writer and scholar.

Honours

She was awarded the degree of Commander of the Order of Rio Branco, of the Order of Santiago da Espada and of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany ; she was Grand Officer of the Order of Public Instruction and Officier of France's Légion d'honneur ; she was awarded the Europe Prize of the Académie de Marches de I'Est and the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique.
She was also a member of the Hispanic Society in America, the Latin Academy and the Lisbon Science Academy.
The following volumes of studies were dedicated to her: 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.

Literary connections

The writer was a close friend of David Mourão-Ferreira, first her student and then a colleague and friend, the Brazilian poet Jorge Amado, the writer Matilde Rosa Araújo, the poet Jorge de Sena, the poet Sebastião da Gama, the Italian philologist Luciana Stegagno Picchio, the philosopher Eduardo Lourenço de Faria, the poet and literary critic Hernâni Cidade, the poet Vitorino Nemésio, among others.

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 City of Lisbon paid tribute to Maria de Lourdes Belchior by giving her name to a street in Lisbon.
The estate of Maria de Lourdes Belchior was largely donated by her sister, in part to the National Library of Portugal and the University of Oporto.