Friday, July 23, 2010

Egas Moniz, Portuguese hero

My father's name is Claudio Humberto Moniz Braga, and to the utter distress of my baby sister Marta who has unofficially changed her own name to Marta Moniz Braga after she finished her doctoral studies in Navarre, Spain, none of us have the name Moniz in our birth certificates.

The heroic act of Egas Moniz was not one of sword or blood, or even physical ability. He was a nobleman entrusted to tutor the young King Alfonso, the one to become the first King of the unified country of Portugal 500 years or so ago. I had a hard time finding his story in English--I found Googlebook entries which are difficult to copy--so I had the Portuguese Wikipedia page automatically translated here for anyone wanting to read more about it.

The picture is on a church wall in the city of Porto, Portugal (where Port wine comes from) showing the climax of Egas Moniz' heroic and noble act, and act of integrity and honesty that found an emperor disarmed and kept Egas' name as a Portuguese imortal hero. His story is also told in the great epic poem of Portugal, the Lusiads.

4 comments:

gmh said...

So it will now be Ana Moniz Braga-Henebry? You've always lacked a middle name that U.S. forms expect.

Ana Braga-Henebry said...

Well, what's the official way to change my name? And the Kids'?

U. said...

Too bad you didn't post about this earlier - we (including your goddaughter) were in Porto until this Wednesday, we could have visited!

Ana Braga-Henebry said...

That was actually a test-- and you failed. Lol!