Aurélio Fernando

Theologian, teacher, and poet, Aurélio Fernando had an education leading to an ecclesiastical career (which he pursued), having completed the Philosophical Course in 1948 and the Theological Course in 1952 at the Seminários de Braga. Graduating with a degree in Theology from the University of Salamanca in 1956, he obtained his doctorate a year later from the same institution, with a thesis on the concept of Scientific Theology in the first two centuries of Christianity. Founder, owner, and director of the Externato Delfim Ferreira in Riba de Ave, Aurélio Fernando was a teacher of Portuguese, French, Latin, and History between 1962 and 1975, taught Philosophy at the Escola do Magistério Primário in Guimarães (1975), and co-founded, in the latter year, the DIDÁXIS educational cooperative (1975). Playing a notable role as a cultural and pedagogical promoter in his region, he was co-founder of the Braga-based magazine Cenáculo (1950) and, from 1951, a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines such as Notícias de Guimarães and Diário do Minho, among others. Member of the Academia Portuguesa de Ex-Libris, the Sociedade Martins Sarmento, the Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal (1951), and the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores, he served as secretary-general (1956) and administrator (1983) of the Fundação Narciso Ferreira in Riba de Ave. In keeping with his socio-cultural involvement, he held various positions in regional bodies, having served on the Municipal Council of Vila Nova de Famalicão as a member of the Municipal Council in 1964, councillor for Culture (1967), and, in 1979, independent municipal deputy. Having co-founded the Casa da Cultura de Vila Nova de Famalicão in 1984 and served as president of the General Assembly, Aurélio Fernando saw his cultural merit recognised with the award of the Medal of Honour of the Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão in 1986, a Honorable Mention from the Ministry of Education, and the appointment to the Rank of Commander of the Order of Public Instruction, both in 1992. Aurélio Fernando's theological training unequivocally marks his poetic production, as is explicit in the Author's definition of it: «lyric-existential poetry» and «metaphysical poetry». Close to the poets of Távola Redonda and Presença, notably José Régio, the theme of «transcendence of Catholic roots» is highlighted as a fundamental characteristic of his poetics (preface by António José Barreiros to 40 Anos de Poesia). In fact, Aurélio Fernando's «scientific and religious» poetry is organised around the personal experience of the divine, featuring constant apostrophes to God and epigraphs from both biblical texts and theological doctrines (such as St. Augustine), alongside a striking use of rhetorical questions and interjections. If in Deus, Silêncio Impossível a poetics based on the commentary of Genesis was already present, in the sonnets of O Evangelho de Jesus Cristo segundo a Poesia this principle reaches, through a process of rewriting the biblical narrative, its stage of greatest intensity. Grounded in the tradition of Portuguese epic and lyric poetry, Aurélio Fernando also devoted himself to satirical poetry, notably in ...De Bico Amarelo, a work in which the use of fable and allegory points, in a way, to authors such as Torga and Aquilino. Regarding epic poetry and in what the Author defines as «historical poetry», the Author traces the poetics of the sonnets in Breves da História to Camonian lyricism, explicitly referring to it as «the muse» of his rewriting of the history of Portugal, from the «Origem» to contemporary «Inquietações», taking in some of the historically most important episodes and figures (D. Pedro and D. Inês, «Mundos Novos», «"Finis Patriae"», among others).