Three hundred years since the death in Toledo of the “flying priest”, who once again touched the sky with the feather of Saramago

“He died at the Misericordia Hospital in Toledo and was buried with charity in San Román. His remains remained in the ossuary of this parish for many years,” the elder tells Europa Press. journalist and writer Enrique Sánchez Lubiánwho in some of his articles dusted off the prowess of this Jesuit priest, considered the father of aeronautics.

It was not in vain that he created the first flying machine in history in 1709, 74 years before the French brothers Joseph Michel and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier presented an airship.

Born in 1685 in Santos, Brazil, he traveled to Portugal to complete his studies at the University of Coimbra.where he distinguished himself by his dedication to physics and mathematics. It was later that his creative fever led him to ask King John V for the patent privilege on the invention of his “instrument for walking in the air”.

For years he worked on this project and finally, in August 1709, in the Casa de Indias palace in Lisbon, in front of King John V of Portugal and his court, he succeeded in raising this aerostat. From that day on he was known as the “Flying Priest” and his ship was named “Passarola”.

“This flight was assisted by the Nuncio of His Holiness – who would later become Pope Innocent. From that moment on, Bartolomé Lourenço began to be looked at with bad eyes,” explains Sánchez Lubián.

Persecuted by the Inquisition, which cut off his wings for daring to challenge the established order, he fled Portugal to settle in Toledo.. Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão arrived ill in the city and died on November 18, 1724 at the Misericordia Hospital.

The emergence of aviation finds its silhouette

For almost 180 years, the story of this dreamer fell into oblivion, until In 1900, the Archaeological Society of Toledo published his death certificate, collected in the book of the parish of San Román.where he was buried.

“From that moment on, he began to be claimed and recognized in Toledo as one of the pioneers of aviation, so much so that during the Corpus Christi festivities of 1912 the city paid homage to him,” remembers Sánchez Lubián, who recovered these facts in one of his articles published in the ABC newspaper on June 4, 2012.

It tells how the Municipal Corporation, armed with masses, went in civic procession to the church of San Román, where a funeral mass took place and where a plaque – now missing – was placed, showing that the flying priest lay there.

To remember this eminent figure, and given that in those years aviation was emerging, The tribute to Gusmão also included Pierre Lacombe’s aerial demonstrationfashionable French pilot, whose flight dazzled the inhabitants of Toledo.

Fourteen years later, participants in the Ibero-American Aeronautical Congress in Madrid, some of whom came from Brazil like the Jesuit, went to Toledo to venerate the creator of the first flying machine, to whom they dedicated a new tribute plaque.

The memory of this exceptional man of science fell into oblivion, until In 1966, the Brazilian government requested that his remains be exhumed to be included in the monument that would be built in his memory in Santos, his hometown..

Although the Jesuit’s bones could not be identified with precision and certainty, since they had been found in a common ossuary since 1724, “they were placed in an urn which was sealed and taken to Brazil, like the plaque which had commemorated his memory in Toledo.”, concludes Sánchez Lubián.

Activated by Saramago’s imagination

Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão’s feat was saved by the privileged imagination of José Saramago, which made him touch the sky again. In “Memorial del Convento”, published in 1982, mixing reality and fiction, he tells the dream of the “flying” Jesuit.by satirizing the construction of the convent of Mafra, which John V ordered built in gratitude to the Franciscans, whose prayers of divine intercession granted him heirs.

This is how he explains it Pilar del Río, journalist and translator who chairs the Foundation that protects the work and legacy of this Nobel Prize in Literaturewho works at Europa Press from ‘A casa’, in Tías. This corner of Lanzarote, now a museum, sheltered Saramago after, like the “flying priest”, he had to leave Portugal after the “fire” caused by the publication of “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”.

“In ‘Memorial of the Convent’ he wanted to write about the convent of Mafra, which is an absurdity made with the money of the so-called colonies, for the greater glory of the monarchy. “When we see Mafra, we don’t see the work of the men and women who were behind it all and who, in many cases, died by accident or from starvation.”

To do this, the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner recovered Father Bartolomeu, who “represents science in the service of humanism”, and designed Baltasar, “Seven Suns”, and Blimunda, “Seven Moons”, which he endowed of the supernatural ability to see. inside the people.

Thus, this “earthly trinity”, which, by uniting wills, managed to raise the “passarola” at a time when progress and challenge to the established order were paid for with bonfires, became part of the “Bible” of universality. literature.

“This union of people, cultures and classes is what allows human beings to fly. Together, they can accomplish many wonderful things, such as building a peaceful society.declares the president of the José Saramago Foundation.

This story of dreams, brotherhood, love, but also intolerance, has seduced a legion of readers, because it is the first book with which Saramago crossed the Portuguese border.

“Before, he had written “Resurrected from the Earth”, which had an extraordinary reception in Portugal, but “Memorial of the Convent”, which was immediately translated into Italian and shortly after into Spanish, opened the doors to other cultures and to him. other countries. for José Saramago,” says Del Río.

But not only did it open the doors to international recognition for him, but it also held the key to his heart, because it was the reason why, without looking, like Baltasar did for Blimunda, he found Pilar del Río, who accompanied him until the end of his days.

The story of the “flying priest” was so fundamental in his life that the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner, after being shot among red carnations, books and a regiment of volunteers who attended his funeral in Lisbon, was cremated with a copy of the ‘Memorial del Couvent’.