Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara

The Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara is a Baroque convent and church complex in the civil parish of São Roque, in the municipality of the same name, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.HistoryThe construction of this complex resulted from a religious pledge of piety formulated during the middle of the 17th century, by a native of São Roque do Pico, Sebastião Ferreira Pimentel. In transit to Lisbon, the boat he was travelling on was attacked by pirates or privateers. In their panic, the crew and passengers saw their carrack enveloped by a dense cloud, and when Ferreira Pimentel affirmed that he saw in the rigging of the main mast a figure of a radiant female figure, of rare beauty, which protected them from harm. After the event, the parents of Ferreira Pimentel, Mr. Sebastião Ferreira de Melo and Mrs. Margarida Vieira, ordered the construction in 1658, a small hermitage to the invocation of Nossa Senhora do Livramento (Our Lady of Freedom/Release) in Cais do Pico.Within a century, with the construction of the Convent of the Order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans under the authority of friar Inácio do Desterro absorbed the primitive structure. Eventually, the convent needed to shelter Franciscan monks from Lajes do Pico following the volcanic eruption of 1 February 1718, that occurred in the civil parish of Santa Luzia, and whose population fled to São Roque for assistance.