Brazil - The Order of Christ

The order was awarded to citizens and foreigners under Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II. until 1889, when Brazil became a republic.

Wishing to resolve the question of the Grandmaster ship of the Portuguese Ancient Military Orders in Brazil, Peter I (IV of Portugal) asked the Pope, through the Brazilian Ambassador to the Holy See, to recognize the rights in Brazil, which once belonged to the Kings of Portugal.

This gave way to the Bull Praeclara Portugaliiae Algarbiorumque Regum, on May 15 1827, given by Pope Leo XII, by which was created a Brazilian branch of the Order of Christ. Notwithstanding, the Bull provoked a great political dispute and was never ratified by the Imperial Parliament.

From this point one might say, following Marques Poliano, that the Portuguese Orders ceased to exist as such, in the Empire of Brazil.

In 1843, under Emperor Dom Pedro II, the Orders of Christ, Aviz and of St. James were recognized in Brazil as National Orders having the Emperor as its Grandmaster. The insignia was basically the same with the addition of the Imperial Crown to the Star and altering the ribbon to distinguish it from the Portuguese Orders of the same name. These Brazilian Orders lasted till the Republican Constitution of 1891 abolished them.

Even though the order seam to be awarded over a long period of time, actual decorations are quite rare. Fred Atlmann points out only 2 known knight cross decorations, a star and a grandmaster cross, which seamed to be build on the base of a cross of the Order of the Southern Cross.

Here a knights decoration, front and back:

And from some different manufactures:

As all the other Brazilian order with the exception of the Order of the Southern Cross and the Order of Aviz the Order of Christ was cancelled March 22, 1890, by the interim government of the united states of Brazil.

© A. Schulze Ising, VII/01