«I've been waiting a lifetime for this moment, to thank João de Deus for what changed in me almost 70 years ago. With him, I started to learn to love Portugal more, when I still didn't quite know what Portugal was, and I doubt that I would better understand what would transform my life knowing how to read and write in Portuguese. But it changed my life. Mine and millions of Portuguese. Thank you John of God!».
This is how the President of the Republic ended, this Monday, his speech at the Closing of the Celebrations of the 190 Years of the Birth of João de Deus, which took place in São Bartolomeu de Messines, birthplace of the pedagogue and poet.
The first words of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa even went to the Algarve researcher Maria João Raminhos Duarte, who would soon present her most recent work, the book «João de Deus Immortal e Intemporal».
The head of state addressed a word "to his work and his talent in research, writing, concern for the reader, affective identification with the great honoree of today."
The President would also commend his hostess Rosa Palma, mayor of Silves, stressing her work in defense of the council.
Considering that “there is no future that can do without the experiences of the present and the lessons of the past”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted the “very rich and unexpected life of João de Deus, so well celebrated in his land”.
Because, he stressed, when João de Deus “arrived at the Maternal Booklet, he took with him a very rich experience of life. It didn't start with the Maternal Primer, it arrived at the Maternal Primer. And this unique, singular work of yours was only possible because of your life. Had he not had this life of knowledge of people, experiences, knowledge of the simplest, to which it was necessary to explain in a simple way, he would not have been the great trainer of countless and consecutive generations».
Punctuating his speech with improvisation and even some humor, President Marcelo recalled that João de Deus “refuted two very common theses – that no one is a prophet in his land and that no one among us is honored in life, only after the death". With the honoree of the night «exactly the opposite happened», he «was the exception».
In part, he stressed, this is due to "his remarkable family, his remarkable lineage", "a devoted family, which, generation after generation, has given permanent breath to man and work."
He owes his prestige after his death to the thousands and thousands of children who populated and populate the João de Deus School Gardens, he owes it to the millions of children who learned through his Maternal Booklet, in which I tell myself, he owes it to o to millions of parents and grandparents who accompanied these children, and owes it to thousands and thousands of teachers who were also guides in this discovery». “Each of them turned out to be an apostle of John of God – the parents, the grandparents and naturally the students”.
But, above all, the prestige of John of God «he owes it to himself: to the unique inspiration to break with what had been the educational format of punishment, to give letter to a method that, more than a method, it was a synthesis of a life made a script to read, write and reach a language and love it».
“What he left us was a script. For what? To learn to read, to learn to write, to learn to reach a language, Portuguese, and to learn to love Portuguese». “It was, in its own way, a gesture of love, as original as its person and life were”, said the President of the Republic.
Maria João Raminhos Duarte, at the presentation of the book “João de Deus Immortal and Timeless” (which has a preface by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and cover by painter Mário Rita), began by emphasizing: “it is not a biography”.
The author, who considered her research as "a marathon", stressed that, in addition to being "a unique person", João de Deus was a "frontier man, an almost marginal person of everything that happened around him - in the Religion, is a believer and deeply Christian, and at the same time critical and extremely anti-clerical; in Politics, he distanced himself from the monarchy, despite the adoration he had for King Pedro V, because he considered it unjust and moved towards socialism and republicanism, without ever joining the ranks of these parties; in Literature he is a precursor of innovative schools, but he never belonged to any».
The researcher argued that «João de Deus is more than a controversial artist, he is a wise man and his legacy for Portuguese culture is undeniable».
And for the Algarve? he asked. For the Algarve, the legacy defines «the soul of a southern region and of a people isolated for centuries from the national corpus».
And the Algarvians, from the very beginning, “saw in João de Deus the personification of their Algarvean soul. For the Algarve, John of God has reached a spiritual dimension and, for them, John of God cannot be merely studied, it has to be truly felt».
At the end of her presentation of the work, an edition of the Municipality of Silves, with the seal of Edições Colibri, Maria João Raminhos Duarte dedicated her new book to Humanity. «For the unimaginable times that plague us, I have dedicated this work to Humanity – because João de Deus deserves no less -, to Humanity, unprepared and besieged, with the desire that Covid-19 will teach us once and for all to properly appreciate life as it is. the poet made it his best poem. Because, for him, virtue, kindness, compassion were the paths of formation. Perhaps for this reason Teófilo Braga elevated João de Deus to the figure of peacemaker of the Portuguese soul. And that's what Portugal needs!». «Let us, in these difficult times, have his capacity to be peacemakers of souls».
But the researcher also made a point of thanking the mayor Rosa Palma for the initiative, stressing that "this work saw the light of day by the will of the president, who is a Messina with heart and soul."
Unlike President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Rosa Palma did not study in the booklet of João de Deus, as she herself assumes in the book's preface. But "I share the concerns that marked the life" of the poet and pedagogue, he adds. «The concern with people, with their training, with the development and evolution of each one. Aware of the importance of education and training for all, as the key to building a society where everyone can be full and active citizens», writes the mayor.
The closing session of the commemorations of the 190th anniversary of the birth of that greatest figure in the municipality of Silves also included the presentation of the children's book «Fábulas de João de Deus», revealing another facet of the artist, that of an «illuminated fabulist», such as the considered Maria João Duarte.
The hardcover book is illustrated by Marta Jacinto, a still young architect who was also dedicated to the plastic arts, namely illustration. And the result of his work highlights the stories for children that come from João de Deus' imagination.
The illustrator, also originally from the municipality of Silves, could not be present, so her book was presented by Paulo Lourenço, who classified her images as "magnificent", stressing that "they help the youngest enter the world of fables" .
The celebrations ended at the end of last night, the 14th, with the open-air concert «If I were a cloud – João de Deus revisited», at Praça Al-Mutamid, in Silves, with the «Lisbon Poetry Orchestra» and the actor André Gago.
As for the President of the Republic, who answered questions from journalists at the entrance and exit of the session in the Vargas Mogo auditorium, he still had time to remove the usual selfies with those who waited patiently for him at the door and then went into a cafe next door, the Tropic, to drink a mini at the counter, which, as always, he paid for out of his pocket.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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