Artur de Oliveira Santos
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Artur de Oliveira Santos | |
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Municipal Administrator of Ourém | |
In office 23 October 1915[1] – 28 February 1918[2] | |
In office 24 April 1920[3] – 31 July 1920[4] | |
Personal details | |
Born | Ourém, Kingdom of Portugal | 22 January 1884
Died | 27 June 1955 Lisbon, Portugal | (aged 71)
Spouse(s) | Idalina de Oliveira Santos |
Occupation | Local politician |
Signature | ![]() |
Artur de Oliveira Santos[a] (22 January 1884 – 27 June 1955), was a Portuguese journalist and local politician, most widely known for being the Municipal Administrator of Ourém, in which the locality of Fátima is located, during the time of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima to three young shepherd children in 1917.
Career[]
Although he had little formal education, Artur Santos was made the editor the local newspaper Ouriense, in which he displayed his anti-monarchical and anti-religious opinions. In his twenties he was elected to the Masonic lodge of Leiria,[5] and then founded a separate Lodge at Vila Nova de Ourém, his native town. Shortly after that he was made Municipal Administrator of Ourém, a delegate of the central government tasked among other things with maintaining public order. He was also President of the Town Hall[citation needed] and Judge Substitute of Comarca,[citation needed] and was, at the time of the apparitions, the most influential man in his area of Portugal.[6]
Role in the Fátima apparitions[]
Artur Santos was known for his hostility towards organized religion in general and Catholicism in particular. He was especially hostile with regards to the apparitions and repeatedly sent law enforcement officials to seek to impede public access to the site. He went so far as to kidnap the three children and place them in jail, in order to prevent them from proclaiming another apparition. Years later, Lucia would recall how the three had been jailed,[7] and that Santos had threatened the children with being boiled in oil unless they revealed to him the secret which they had reported receiving from the Lady.[8]
In his later years, Artur Santos professed to be a Christian, but denied going to Mass or Confession. He sent a letter to a newspaper stating his side of the story on the issue of having arrested the children. Although stripped of political offices in his later years, he took pride in the fame he once had, and assert that he was known all over the world "and in Russia, too".[9]
Notes and references[]
- ^ "Nomeado administrador do concelho de Vila Nova de Ourem, Arthur de Oliveira Santos", 1915-10-23 - Torre do Tombo National Archive, Ministério do Interior, Decretos, mç. 229, cx. 41
- ^ "Exonerado de administrador do concelho de Vila Nova de Ourem, Artur de Oliveira Santos", 1918-02-28 - Torre do Tombo National Archive, Ministério do Interior, Decretos, mç. 235, cx. 49
- ^ "Nomeado administrador do concelho de Vila Nova de Ourem, Artur de Oliveira Santos", 1920-04-24 - Torre do Tombo National Archive, Ministério do Interior, Decretos, mç. 242, cx. 58
- ^ "Exonerado de administrador do concelho de Vila Nova de Ourem, Artur de Oliveira Santos", 1920-07-31 - Torre do Tombo National Archive, Ministério do Interior, Decretos, mç. 242, cx. 58
- ^ "At twenty-six he joined the Grand Orient Masonic Lodge at Leiria." OPPOSITION TO FATIMA (Part I) Archived 2006-06-02 at the Wayback Machine, The Fatima Crusader, Issue 7 Page 12, Spring 1981
- ^ John De Marchi, The Immaculate Heart: The True Story of Our Lady of Fatima, Farrar, Straus, and Young, New York, (1952), p 87.
- ^ "The children were kidnapped on the morning of the 13th by the Mayor of Vila Nova de Ourém, Artur Santos." The Apparitions at Fátima, Theotokos Catholic Books
- ^ John De Marchi, The Immaculate Heart: The True Story of Our Lady of Fatima, Farrar, Straus, and Young, New York, (1952), pp. 96-100.
- ^ Joseph Pelletier, The Sun Danced at Fatima, Doubleday, New York (1983), p. 226.
Notes[]
- ^ Alternatively rendered as Arthur d'Oliveira Santos, the standard spelling before the 1911 spelling reform.
- Our Lady of Fátima
- Mayors of places in Portugal
- People from Ourém
- Portuguese Freemasons
- Catholicism and Freemasonry
- 1884 births
- 1955 deaths