Inácio de São Caetano


Inácio de São Caetano, O.C.D., was a Portuguese scholar, theologian, and church leader. He was appointed the first bishop of Penafiel when the diocese was erected by Pope Clement XIV in 1770; when the diocese was suppressed 8 years later, he was promoted to Titular Archbishop of Thessalonica.
Inácio de São Caetano occupied many prestigious positions in the Portuguese court: initially the protegé of Joseph of Braganza, Archbishop of Braga, in 1759 he was named confessor of the Princess of Beira ; in 1787 he was made Inquisitor General of Portugal.
The death of the Archbishop of Thessalonica, as the Queen's confessor, in 1788 has been cited as one of the many contributing factors that led to the Queen's mental deterioration that forced her surviving heir apparent and eventual successor Prince John to take over the government in her name as regent.

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