He was born in Montemor-o-Novo on 3 September 1915 and died in Lisbon on 5 June 1982. He attended the Évora Seminary and joined the Society of Jesus, where he studied Humanities and Philosophy. He graduated in Historical-Philosophical Sciences and completed a doctorate in History at the University of Lisbon. He was a secondary school teacher, assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Social Sciences and Overseas Politics and, from 1978, professor at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, where he taught Introduction to Classical Studies. He was a coordinating researcher on the Board, director of the Centre for Classical Studies of the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, which he founded in 1950, and director of the Office of Philosophical Studies of the University Centre of Lisbon. He was vice-president of the Academia Portuguesa de História [Portuguese Academy of History ] ( since February 1981), a member of the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa [ Lisbon Academy of Sciences ], the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa [ Lisbon Academy of Geography ], the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio de Janeiro [ Historical and Geographical Institute of Rio de Janeiro] and the Instituto Histórico Geográfico de Santa Catarina [ Historical and Geographical Institute of Santa Catarina] ( Brazil ). He was an effective member of the UNESCO Scientific Committee for the drafting of a General History of Africa. He received several honours, including the Instituto de Angola Prize (1955), the National History Prize (1966), and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Prize (1981). He was posthumously honoured by the Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre on 26 June 2013.

He authored a vast body of research on Portuguese History and Culture from the 16 th to the 18 th centuries, published in books, articles and papers, especially in the fields of religious and cultural history, the history of philosophy, education, colonial and local history. He was the editor (together with Maria Manuela Saraiva) of Filosofia . Revista do Centro de Estudos Escolásticos [Philosophy. Journal of the Centre for Scholastic Studies] from Lisbon (1954-1962) and between 1980-1982, he took over the publication of the Dicionário da História da Igreja em Portugal [Dictionary of the History of Church in Portugal] , of which only two volumes were published (Lisbon, Editorial Resistência ) due to his death. His first study on the history of philosophical thought in Portugal was published in the journal Brotériain in 1943 ( ‘ A Renascença nos “ Conimbricenses ”’ [The Renaissance in “ Conimbricenses ”] ) , followed by other articles on authors of scholastic philosophy between 1944 and 1950. At the same time, he began publishing his studies on Luiz António Vernei in the same journal, many of which were later compiled and published in book form.

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