The Persecution of Portugal's Beautiful Marrano, Beatrice de Luna AKA Gracia Nasi, Leading to Tiberias, Palestine

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

In 1510, Beatrice de Luna was born in Portugal as a Marrano.  The Marranos were Jews who decided to remain in Portugal after Portugal followed Spain's treatment of Jews in 1492 by giving them an ultimatum.  Leave our country.  We don't want anyone living here who isn't a Christian.  If you convert, you can stay, but if you don't leave, you will be killed.  The Christian religion ruled the day and the ultimatum came from the Pope through the king and queen of Spain.                                          

                                  King John (Joao) III of Portugal from 1521-1557 

She was born 18 years after this ultimatum and her parents had stayed, so had to have decided they would convert but that was just a pretense to them.  Privately, they were Jews, and practiced as much of their Judaism as they felt they could get away with.  For instance, they  would not have eaten any pork, nor be able to attend synagogue service, as there were none anymore.  They might have tried to remember holidays and made some special treats for it on those days.  If they were found out, they would be killed.  They may have actually been baptised.  Then they may have had to attend church.   Marranos would be watched by spies for the church to see if they do anything "Jewish."  If denounced as Jews, they would have been killed because of the deception.  

Beatrice married   the banker, Francisco Mendes, also a Portuguese Marrano of a very outstanding family.  

Within the Mendes family was Diogo Mendes, who died in 1543, a banker.  He had established an important financial and trading house in Antwerp, Belgium  in 1500 and long headed the Marrano community of that city.  He was now the brother-in-law of Gracia Nasi, so Diogo must have been the brother of Francisco.  

Francisco, Beatrice's husband, died in 1536, making her a widow at age 26, so she moved to Antwerp, where her husband's family lived.  She was now alone, a prominent woman, envied because of her great wealth.   She feared religious persecution  and escaped first in 1544  to Venice.  There, she was denounced as being a wanted Marrano, and was put in prison.  

She must have been let out, because by 1549, she went to Ferrara, Italy.  There she let it be known that she was a Jew.  She was able to patronize literature  while controlling an underground organization for the rescue of Marranos in Portugal and was only 39.  

Three years later in 1552-1553, she went to Constantinople, Turkey, today called Instanbul,  It was the ancient Byzantium, largest city and principal seaport of Turkey. It was the capital of both the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, now going by the name, Gracia Nasi.  She was joined by her nephew, Joseph Nasi.  Beatrice is now known as Gracia Nasi, a Jewish leader.  

She was able to continue her widespread commercial operations, as well as becoming the most prominent leader of Turkish Jewry.  She built synagogues, helped fugitive Marranos, organized in 1556-1557 in the face of opposition, the boycott of the port of Ancona in revenge for the burning of a group of Marranos, and began the project for the colonization of Tiberias in Palestine.  

She probably died in Palestine in 1569 at the age of 59, most likely in Tiberias.  

Her nephew, Joseph Nasi, was born in 1520 and became a statesman.  He was Gracia's son-in-law as well as nephew.  His Portuguese birth name had been Joao Miguaez and he had gone to Antwerp in 1536 with Gracia.  When his aunt fled to Italy in 1544, he remained behind to settle her affairs.  He joined her in 1554 in Constantinople where he embraced Judaism publicly as Joseph Nasi and married Gracia's daughter, Reyna.  In those days, Jews married cousins if they wished.  It was the norm.  if anything, anti-Semitism brought it about.  Also, if was a way of family protecting their finances.  

Because he now had a wider knowledge of the world of European affairs, he obtained an entree to the Turkish court and became an intimate of Selim, the heir to the throne.  In 1561, he received from the sultan, a lease of Tiberias and an adjacent area which he endeavored to develop as an autonomous Jewish center.  When Selim became sultan in 1566, Joseph Nasi was created Duke of Naxos and the Cyclades, "the premier duchy of Christendom."  Promised the crown of Cyprus by the sultan if the island became Turkish, he was partly responsible for the breach with Venice and the disastrous Cyprus war of 1570.  

Although in 1571, he was appointed voivode of Wallachia,  Romania,  his power thereafter waned.  Joseph's widow, Reyna,  established, after his death in 1579, a Hebrew printing-press at her palace of Belvedere outside Constantinople, there and at Kuru Cesme,  which was also near Constantinople, several works were published under her auspices from 1592 to 1599.  

The Mendes family kept up their reputation of having worthy descendants.  Fernando Mendes died in 1724 and was a Marrano physician.  He accompanied Catherine of Braganza when she went to England to marry Charles H,  He founded a noted English-Jewish family.  

Moses Mendes died in 1758 and was the English author, grandson of Fernando Mendes who was baptized.  He wrote poems and plays.  

Catulle Mendes (1841-1909) was a French poet and playwright.  He was one of the founders of the Parnassian school of poetry and long adhered to classic  executions.  His later works were written in a lighter vein.  He was an early admirer of Wagner.  

Henry Pereira Mendes (1852-1937) was an American Sephardi rabbi.  He was born and educated in England.  Henry was the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel of New York.  He was one of the founders of the Zionist Organization of America, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, the New York Kehillah and the Jewish Theological Seminary of which he was president from 1897 to 1902.  

Life was almost impossible as a Marrano. In Spanish, Marrano means "SWINE."  Jews do not eat any part of a pig.   You have to give them credit of not bending and actually follow a religion they did not believe in that would have made life so much easier to bear.  I have found Marranos living in all sorts of small islands, unknown to most of us.  Leaving Spain or Portugal in those days was a life and death situation as travel by boat was scary.  

Jews were becoming Marranos as soon as 1391 after massacres and the Dominican campaign.  The Spanish Inquisition was introduced in Spain in 1480 and began repression that continued after the expulsion of Jews in 1492.  Portugal's forced conversion was in 1497 which converted almost the whole body of Portuguese Jewry into insincere Christians.  The Inquisition was introduced in Portugal by 1540.  Persecution of these people continued into the 18th century. 

Isn't it interesting that  Henry Mendes of the 20th century is a throwback to his ancestors of the 16th century?  Maybe the genes we inherit are on a cycle  and come out every 4 centuries.  We do have to give credit to our ancestors for our abilities.  

                                                                        

In Wonder' singer, Shawn Mendes, has a very close relationship with his mum, dad and sister, but who are they all? Get to know his family... born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He gained a following in 2013, posting song covers on the video-sharing application Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manager Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton, which led to him signing a deal with the record label. Mendes's self-titled debut EP was released in 2014, followed by his debut studio album Handwritten in 2015. Handwritten debuted atop the US Billboard 200, making Mendes one of five artists ever to debut at number one before the age of 18. The single "Stitches" reached number one in the UK and the top 10 in the US and Canada.  I just found him on the web.  Chances are that he is related to the Portuguese Mendes family.  

Who is Shawn Mendes’ dad?

Manuel Mendes, originally from Portugal, is a strong figure in Shawn’s life with the singer very happy to thank his dad regularly on Twitter for their experiences together.

In 2019 Shawn showed his dad just how grateful he is for him by bringing him along to the Grammys so he got a front-row seat to watch his son perform with Miley Cyrus.

Manuel sells bar and restaurant supplies in Toronto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHeQemJJQII  You can listen to him here.  I like him.                                                          

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/09/beatrice-mendes-nee-de-luna-aka-dona.html , a 6 year lapse of writing about the same person...different.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Portuguese_monarchs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Mendes