The prolific priest
Legend has it that in the year of 1487 Francisco da Costa priest at the village of Trancoso, a village in northern Portugal, was sentenced to be quartered by horses.
His crime?
He had allegedly fathered two hundred and fourteen daughters and eighty five sons by fifty four women totaling two hundred and ninety nine children, which he never denied.
The mother's of the said children were twenty nine god-daughters, five of his own sisters, nine of his in-laws, seven maids, two slaves, one of his aunts and his own mother.
The story goes on that the sentence was not carried out due to a royal indult: D. João II, King of Portugal, pardoned the priest and set him free on account of the help that priest had given with the repopulation of that area, which at that time was in dire need of people.
This story has been told for quite some time now, many go as far as to claim the story is registered in the National Archives (Torre do Tombo), although there is no clear evidence of that.
How much of this tale is true is anybody’s guess, however we all know the saying where there is smoke…
Tags:Portugal legends
His crime?
He had allegedly fathered two hundred and fourteen daughters and eighty five sons by fifty four women totaling two hundred and ninety nine children, which he never denied.
The mother's of the said children were twenty nine god-daughters, five of his own sisters, nine of his in-laws, seven maids, two slaves, one of his aunts and his own mother.
The story goes on that the sentence was not carried out due to a royal indult: D. João II, King of Portugal, pardoned the priest and set him free on account of the help that priest had given with the repopulation of that area, which at that time was in dire need of people.
This story has been told for quite some time now, many go as far as to claim the story is registered in the National Archives (Torre do Tombo), although there is no clear evidence of that.
How much of this tale is true is anybody’s guess, however we all know the saying where there is smoke…
Tags:Portugal legends
posted by DCveR at 5:01 PM
8 Comments:
TGOV: Some say he was 62 when he was finally put on trial.
DC, it got more and more amazing as I read!
And finally, his own mother!
Jesus! The guy should have boiled alive not pardoned!
cream: Mind you his charges were adultery and incest, not rape.
So if he should be boiled so should the women...
on top of all that, he was a priest!
Cherrypie tagged me and if you have time to play this game then you are invited, DC...
Oh mah gosh!!!
There was an old feller in Jamaica known as Charlie 'Mattress', he died at age 90-something and even he didn't have that many children.
I sincerely doubt that, as told, this story could be true simply because women are too territorial to allow such a thing. You are talking 54 women (if my math is correct) and out of those 54, none fell in love and tried to gouge out the eyes of one of her rivals or kill the offspring? Without such details, I'm afraid I have to look at this story with suspicion. Note: it's not the implication of male sluttiness that has pricked my suspicion, but rather the lack of female bitchiness. Must be urban legend!
cadiz: It wouldn't be the first nor the last time a priest had several sons...
cream: I'll pass that thank you.
GG: The Mattress? Guess he earned that nickname...
bunny jo: I really don't believe it to be all true either. Still, one of our kings was also famed for having fathered and taking care of over a hundred bastard children, and that one is documented by his chronists.
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