THE FORMS OF MARTYRDOM: ELEMENTS FOR THE ICONOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE MOROCCO PROTOMARTYRS IN PORTUGAL (THIRTEENTH-SIXTEENTH CENTURIES)

The aim of the current article is to present the latest research endeavors dedicated to the hagiographic formulas from which the Protomartyrs of Morocco main artistic forms were conceived during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age in Portugal. Based on the analysis of the main documentary sources and the interpretation of the several artistic collections —mainly composed by reliquaries, paintings, and sculptures— it is possible to gather a set of specific elements to trace the iconographic major themes of the Five Franciscans martyrized in North Africa in 1220. Despite the evolution of devotional manifestations over time, the iconography maintained very conventional procedures, which are still evoked by the Catholic Church 1 .


Study justification 1
In 2020, the eight hundred years of the five Franciscan friars' martyrdom in Morocco were celebrated with several cultural events, art exhibitions and scientific congresses. After the conference Mártires de Marrocos: Evocação dos 800 anos do martírio 2 , that we co-organized in Coimbra, on January 16 th , we received the invitation from the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, to prepare a study for the exhibition catalogue After their arrival, they soon tried to resume their mission. The Franciscan friars' missionary purpose was based on the proclamation of the Gospel at the Caliphate court. On the other hand, Yūsuf al-Mustanşir, commonly referred in the Portuguese historical sources as the Miramolim -the misinterpretation of amīr al-mu'mimīn, the Father of the Believers-, tried to persuade them to embrace the Islamic religion 14  The continuous confrontations with the population and, above all, the continuous offenses directed at the caliph would determine their death penalty. They thus achieved martyrdom in Morocco on January 16 th , 1220 15 .
In Marrakesh, as a vassal of the caliph, there could be found the Portuguese Infante D. Pedro Sanches , the second male son of D. Sancho I [1154|1185-1211] and brother of King D. Afonso II. He was the future count of Urgel and lord of Mallorca 16 . D. Pedro not only was responsible for hosting and protecting the friars during their stay in Marrakesh but was also the mentor of the operation to recover the friars' corpses after their public execution 17 . Almost immediately the population violently attacked the corpses which were thrown out from the Caliph palace. While some mutilated the corpses, others threw their heads at the burning fires, which never burned 18 .
The preparation of the mutilated corpses was made by the D. Pedro's pageboys under the supervision of D. Joam Roberte, the canon of the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra who served the Portuguese Infante in Marrakech as a private chaplain. Properly wrapped in local fabric pieces the bones were then deposited inside two chests since they were already considered authentic relics 19 . Soon the transportation journey would begin on an itinerary comprised by the cities of Marrakesh, Ceuta, 15. The osteological analysis of the relics allowed to identify three adult male individuals, two of them aged between thirty and forty years.  102, 105-108. 17. Although the rescue was successfully achieved, with the five corpses delivery, two of D. Pedro's knights that had participated on mission were killed. One of them was D. Pedro Fernandez de Castro, the same one who helped them reach Marrakesh. Tratado da vida & martyrio...: IV, XI-XII, XXII-XXIII. 18. Tratado da vida vida & martyrio...: XXIII. Although the sources are omitted in this question, it is quite possible that the purpose of the people was to destroy the corpses entirely, considering the importance given to the physical body in the resurrection and salvation context of the Christian religion since the Late Antiquity. This may have been the reason why the Muslims dismembered and tried to burn the corpses and why the Christians collected them. Klein, Holger A. "Sacred Things and Holy Bodies. Collecting Relics from Late Antiquity to the Early Renaissance", Treasures of Heaven. Saints, relics, and devotion in Medieval Europe. Martina Bagnoli, Holger A. Klein, Griffith Mann, James Robinson, eds. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2010, 55-67 maxime 55. 19. The scrapping process of removing the flesh from the bones left visible physical marks on some bone elements attributed to the Martyrs of Morocco. Despite the fragile state of the bones conservation, the pathologies detected suggest the possibility that some of the fractures may have resulted at the time of the individuals' death, thus corroborating the violence exerted. The transverse fractures in two atlases, belonging to two distinct male individuals, suggest that they were made by sharp objects, thus reinforcing the hypothesis that we are facing at least two beheaded individuals. The results obtained with the osteological analysis thus corroborate, in several aspects, the narrations mentioned in the hagiographic texts of the martyred. Cunha, Eugénia; Silva, Ana Maria. Os Mártires de Marrocos...: 3. This anthropology report will be also published by both authors at Mártires de Marrocos: Evocação dos 800 anos do martírio publication (please see note 1). Astorga and Coimbra. During the long expedition, D. Pedro escort traveled through arid deserts, repelled wild animals, deceived the Almohad armies which were in their pursuit and faced tumultuous sea storms 20 .
Once the entourage reached Coimbra, the relics were delivered at the Augustinian Monastery of Santa Cruz. It was the main house of the community that adopted the Regula ad servos Dei attributed to Saint Augustine of Hipona 21 , the famous propagator of Christian monasticism in Africa. Several centuries later this evangelization enterprise would be continued by the Seraphic Father fellow brothers 22 .
Enveloped in a mystical and providential aura from the first moment 23 , the event of the relic's delivery at the Monastery of Santa Cruz occurred in two possible dates in 1220. While for the Franciscan authors it occurred on November 3 rd24 , for the Augustinians happened on December 10 th25 . During the procession which headed towards the Cathedral of Santa Maria, organized by the bishop of Coimbra, D. Pedro Soares [? | 1192-1232], the mule that transported the relics chests suddenly entered the monastery church, only moving again once its cargo was lifted from its back 26 .
Despite the historical sources precision about the relics delivery, the real intention of D. Pedro when depositing them in the cathedral must be questioned. In fact, the relics were initially arranged to be delivered to the cathedral, yet they eventually were taken to the monastic church, where the direct predecessors of D. Pedro, the first two kings of Portugal, were buried. Furthermore, this was the community house of the Augustinian canon D. Joam Roberte 27 , the religious who played a crucial role in the entire process of treating and packaging the relics in Marrakesh 28 .
The Monastery of Santa Cruz, already considered one of the most famous relics sanctuaries in Portugal (see illustration 1), would thus become the radiating epicenter of the first worship celebrations and the main devotional manifestations around the Protomartyrs. 20 The canons of Santa Cruz would become directly responsible for sharing their relics, first with the Monastery of Santa Maria of Lorvão, located in Penacova -about 20 kilometers from Coimbra-, and then with many other regular communities and ecclesiastical entities. The martyred remains were mainly shared with the opulent Augustinian monasteries and the poor Franciscan convents, passing, of course, through some of the most important religious and diocesan communities.
The human remains of the friars touched by sanctity at the end of earthly life in Marrakesh -the identified real specimens and the assigned representative ones-can be grouped in three categories 29 . The first relics category belongs to the bodily remains, namely bones, teeth and hair 30 ; the second category gathers the instruments of martyrdom 31 ; and the third category is comprised by the objects in direct contact with the previous ones, such as the fabrics that the relics were 29 involved in Marrakesh and the chests where they were transported from there to Coimbra 32 .
The restricted sharing of relics from the monasteries of Santa Cruz of Coimbra and Santa Maria of Lorvão was done, above all, but not exclusively, through the intervention of some elements belonging to/or connected to the Portuguese Royal 32. In the Monastery of Santa Cruz there are still some wood fragments from the primitive chests, deposited at the reliquary-urn, and the liturgical chasuble of the Martyrs, made with the fabrics in which the relics came involved. illustration 1. reliquary of the five martyrs of morocoo in the relic's sanctuary of the monastery of santa cruz of coimbra. coimbra workshop-anonymous author. eighteenth century (second half). carved wood, polychrome and gold. original and current location: monastery of santa cruz of coimbra. illustration provided by milton pedro dias pacheco. Although the religious cult appeared on the axis of Coimbra and Lorvão, in two monastic communities with strong institutional relations to the Portuguese Crown, the first devotional manifestations sparked spontaneously in Marrakesh. Not only the bones were treated and prepared as relics in Morocco but also during the journey that would bring them to Coimbra several miraculous prodigies were operated. And in Coimbra several public manifestations were prepared to receive them.
Based on popular religiosity with strong acquaintances to the surrounding local area 37 , the devotional celebrations and worship manifestations ended up gradually approaching the canonical premises defined by the Holy See. Despite antiquity and longevity, the most worshiped holy martyrs during the Middle Ages in Portugal 38 only ascended to the Church altars on August 7, 1481, with the canonization confirmed by the bull Cum alias animo reuolueremus merita beatorum martyrum, granted by the Pope Sixtus IV [1414|1471-1484], the former Minister General of the Order of Saint Francis 39 .
Despite the multiple dissemination of religious forms defined around the Martyrs, found shortly after the relics arrival in 1220, the canonization process took much longer. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, their cult extended to the east of the Iberian Peninsula. After the failed attempt of James II of Aragon [1267-1327], in 1321 40 , the canonization process was reinvigorated by the Augustinian canons, once again, in the fifteenth century, first with the records compilation of the prodigies operated and then with the renovation of the relics chapels at the church of the Monastery of Santa Cruz.
In a time of spiritual expansion and political implantation, the providential choice of the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra for the relics depositing contributed to the ennoblement of the main devotional center collaborating directly with the Portuguese Crown. The community involved in the production of governmental, administrative and diplomatic documents for the Kingdom and in the biographies of the Kings would also continue to write the Church's sacred memory 41 . Alongside the hagiographic compositions dedicated to the first saints and martyrs from the Coimbra region 42 , the Augustinian canons were also responsible for the writing of the history of the five lesser friars martyred in Morocco in 1220. Probably the first ones.

Liturgical, festive and martyrologic texts
After placing the relics in a safe and solemn space, D. João César, the prior of the Monastery of Santa Cruz between 1205-1212 and 1219-1228 43 , ordered the compilation of the testimonies transmitted orally by the bearers, the direct and indirect intermediaries responsible for relics transportation from Marrakesh to Coimbra. Having gathered the oral statements, the canons began writing the hagiographic texts dedicated to the evangelizing mission and the consequent martyrdom. Probably, these manuscripts records were the basis of the so-called legenda antiqua composition destined to perpetuate the martyr's narrative and sow the fame of the relics treasure.
Originally conceived in this monastic house, the miscellany codex Santa Cruz 40, organized according to the saintly and votive criteria of the Augustinians, gathers a Missale Sacramentarium containing the votive liturgical mass oldest formulas dedicated to the Martyrs in Portugal, written in the first third of the thirteenth century 44  In the codex Santa Cruz 29, a volume compiled between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, there are two of the ancient hagiographic texts devoted them: a Passio et miracula quinque fratrum minorum martyrum in Marochio, the text considered to be the oldest and most complete; and the Legend quinque fratrum minorum martyrum in Marochio, a latter and more concise version that was written close to that date -both published in Portvgalliae Monvmenta Historica, in 1856, although with different titles 45 -, and a festive music hymn: the Commemoratio sanctorum martirum quinque fratrum minorum 46 .
The codicological volume Santa Cruz 38, collected in the same monastic fund around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, preserves one of the miracle lists: In hoc livro continemtur miracula sanctorum martirum Beraldi, Otti, Adiuti, Petri et Occurssy in beate Crucis monasterio tumba honorifice collectorum 47 . In addition to the list, composed in the fifteenth century probably within the scope of the canonization process, there is an illuminated painting with the oldest representation of the Protomartyrs of Morocco martyrdom (see illustration 2).
With the development of the printing press in the sixteenth century, medieval scriptores gradually gave way to modern printers in the production of liturgical and devotional texts. The Breuiarius secũndum usum insignis monasterii sctẽ crucis colibriẽsis was printed in the monastery in 1531, a book in which some of the formulas defined for the liturgical feast of the Moroccan Protomatyrs are found 48 . It was used in the celebration of Divine Offices in Santa Cruz, namely in the festive masses of the Martyrs, on January 16 th , until the year of 1568 at least 49 .
The existence of several documentary sources at the Monastery of Santa Cruz, both handwritten and printed but increasingly fragmented, sparse and contaminated over the centuries, testifies to the long tradition of producing contents intended to evoke the Martyrs sacred history. In order to disseminate the religious manifestations, the prior of Santa Cruz, D. Jorge de Barbosa, decided to promote the   translation of the oldest relation from Latin into Portuguese, complemented with the ancient texts of the royal chronicles 50 . He entrusted the task to an anonymous writer -certainly an Augustinian canon from his own community-, the same one who admitted, in a critical tone, that in the distant thirteenth century there was no care in describing and perpetuating subjects as glorious as this, which is why many 50 Reflecting the religious context marked by the reformist Council of Trent 52 , the Tratado da vida & martyrio dos cinco Martires de Marocos is structured in thirty-three chapters in which the multiple events are diachronically explored. After presenting the convocation of the friars by Francesco d'Assisi and the itineraries traveled in southern Europe and in North Africa the author listed the contacts established with some Royal Family members in Coimbra and Alenquer. Afterwards the bodily torments suffered during the evangelizing process were enumerated, first in Seville and then in Marrakesh. Then the apotheosis of martyrdom was described: the execution of the five friars, the rescuing of their corpses and the transportation of the already considered to be relics to the Monastery of Santa Cruz in the presence of the Portuguese monarchs themselves.
Alongside the main events, complemented with spiritual edifying dialogues, the hagiographic treatise incorporates some aspects of the Franciscanism in Portugal. After dealing with the foundation of the Franciscan Convent of Alenquer -associating the passage of the five Italian friars in the court of the Infanta D. Sancha, who, in 1219, had welcomed the missionaries in person-, and having explored the reaction taken by Saint Francis during his Gospel mission in the East, the author mentions the awakening from the seraphic vocation of the Augustinian canon D. Fernão Martins de Bulhões [c.1191-1231], acclaimed by the Church of Rome as Saint António of Padova or Lisbon.
According to the dominant narrative, D. Fernão Martins de Bulhões had contacted the five minor friars in Coimbra in 1219 (See Illustration 3), before their departure to Alenquer, but the decisive moment was when he saw the relics coming in 1220. In front of the complete nucleus of the Protomartyrs of Morocco relics he decided to abandon the rich mozzetta of Saint Augustine and accept the poor hood of Saint Francis 53 . After taking up the vows of poverty, humility and obedience, Friar António of Coimbra went, in the company of Friar Filipe, to North Africa, in 1221 54 , in order to continue the evangelization mission. However, his brief passage in Morocco did not allow him to obtain the palm and crown of martyrdom, which he had hoped to receive, unlike many of his brothers 55   The treatise ended with a prayer dedicated to the gloriosis Martyru, a concise list of the relics dispersed through royal intervention, and a catalogue of nineteen witnessed prodigies, recorded in a chronology marked between 1410 and 1530 -the first two counting the origins of the Procession of the Naked (Procissão dos Nus)-but excluding the eight miracles incorporated in the text of the Tratado da vida & martyrio 57 .
During the reprint of the Tratado da vida & martyrio, in 1928, the historian António da Rocha Madahil  collated the manuscript sources and the printed works from the Santa Cruz monastery in order to analyze the origin of the primeval texts dedicated to the Franciscan martyrs: "In the general chronicles and those of the Order that could have influenced it by his date, this episode of the journey to Morocco and the martyrdom of the five priests was included with slight variations; we compared all that we could have at hand and, undeniably recognizing a common background, diluted a little in successive and worse copies and enlargements, it seems beyond doubt that the two lessons of Santa Cruz mentioned above were the direct source of the Treatise; there are whole sentences in it that are the word-for-word translation of those Latin texts" 58 .
Rocha Madahil thus presented new historical information about the treatise, dividing the textual corpus into three chronologically distinct parts: the prologue that inaugurates the work; the text itself that results from the translation of an old Latin narrative from the monastery, complemented by chronicles dedicated to the first Kings of Portugal; and the list of miracles, although not all correspond to those of the registration process celebrated by the Coimbra judicial notary Jorge Vaaz 59 .
Based who, about a century later, denounced the aforementioned original manuscript disappearance: "There used to be a book, in which it was written how many there were, what virtues and outstanding were their actions, and what miracles had worked for them the great power of God; and this declared to us the Legend of the five Martyrs of Morocco, which is kept in the monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra. [...] But this book does not appear today, nor do we know that an evil spirit, or what a disaster of time, drowned the memory of our ancestors in so much forgetfulness." 61 In fact, the same hagiographic memorial was found in all Franciscan convents during the governance of Friar João da Póvoa 62 , apparently a work he had requested to Friar Francisco of Sevilla in 1476 63 .
Despite the theme's complexity, due to the dispersion and destruction of the original documentary sources and the contamination of the content published by several authors -in a first and longer phase by Augustinians and Franciscans-, it is still possible to trace some historical elements regarding the authorship of the two referenced hagiographic texts.
In the oldest works dedicated to the Five Martyrs of Morocco dating from the thirteenth century, many authors -such as the Franciscan Friar Giordano da Giano 64 [c.1185-c.1262], the Dominican Friar Vicent of Beauvais 65 [c.1190 (?)-c.1264], and the anonymous author of Legenda Prima consecrated to Saint António in 1232, also known as the Assidua 66 -, highlighted the contribution made by the Portuguese Infante D. Pedro Sanches. He is appointed as a potential responsible for gathering the first martyrdom testimonies, which would be transcribed by Estevão Annes, of Vila Franca, probably in the second half of the fourteenth century 67 .
Although it is not possible to prove his direct participation in the composition of the old hagiographic treatise -who knows if it was intentionally hidden due to 61 the incompatibilities between King D. Afonso II and Infante D. Pedro Sanches 68 and later forgotten in the maelstrom of the times-, the Infante was who most intensely experienced the main events. He not only witnessed the reception of the Franciscan friars in Marrakesh and their execution at the hands of the Almohad caliph as he was also responsible for the recovery, transport and delivery of the relics, information that would meanwhile be completed with the reports of the Portuguese Royal Family members and the knights of the Infante's House. In addition, it is important to underline the personal intentions of D. Pedro himself throughout his own politicaldevotional enterprise, once he had the necessary financial and human resources to do it, perhaps through the direct contacts established by his personal chaplain, D. Joam Roberte, who accompanied him during the African journey. Nevertheless, it is not possible to ignore that D. Pedro Nunez, an Augustinian canon from the Monastery of Santa Cruz that became the personal confessor and spiritual guide of Queen D. Urraca of Castile -and who witnessed and reported the Queen apparition after her death 69 -could have, apparently, the skills 70 to have been one of authors.
It should also be noted that other knights who were at the service of D. Pedro Sanches were responsible for publicizing the events witnessed on January 16, 1220. It seems that the hagiographic composition, which was written by the Bishop of Lisbon, D. Matheus, was equally ancient, albeit in a more concise textual format 71 , and proven legitimate based on the reports of the companions in arms of the Portuguese Infante. Among the known names are Estevom Pirez, a natural knight from Santarém 72 and one of the three chamber boys of the Infante responsible for the relics preparation in Marrakesh -the same one who swore an oath to the Bishop D. Matheus, regarding the witnessed events 73 -and Ruy Fafez 74 . Strangely both names were never mentioned in the Tratado da vida & martyrio of 1568.
Naturally, it should also be hypothesized that this version was composed using some other older manuscripts, probably the primeval text attributed to the inner circle of D. all this that we said about these holy Martyrs in this way and other things" 76 . As in the previous case, this succinct version of the hagiographic treatise also underwent several transcriptions, namely by Friar Arnaldo Serrano 77 , between the years 1360 and 1374 78 , having even served in the composition of the seraphic chronicles of Franciscan authors, from Friar Bernard Besse 79 , around 1280 80 , to Friar Manoel da Esperança, in 1656 81 .
Without the possibility of an exhaustive analysis, it is important to point out that the narrative structure of events follows a very close chronological-spatial line between the Franciscan chronicle of 1557 and the Santa Cruz treatise of 1568. One of the possible examples is the description of the Infanta D. Sancha mystical vision in her palace in Alenquer at the precise time that the friars were killed in Marrakesh, at eleven o'clock on January 16 th , 1220 82 , between the chapters dedicated to the body's decapitation and corpses mutilation.
The few most evident divergences found in the texts, when compared, alter, but not in essence, some events: such as the alternative route of the five Franciscan friars from Alenquer to Seville, by land, through Alentejo 83 , or by sea, through Lisbon 84 ; or the transport of relics to the Kingdom of León, from Tarifa directly to Galicia 85 , or from Tarifa, Seville and only then to Galicia 86 . Moreover, the authorization granted by Miramolim to D. Pedro to inhume the friars 87 and the identification of the text rapporteurs attributed to the Lisbon bishop 88 are not included in the Tratado of 1568.
The main hagiographic contents were formulated according to the prevailing models of medieval passiones sanctorum, the genesis of modern martyrology and calendar of saints, after the printing of the With the evangelization mission explained and the proselytizer martyrdom exposed, many of these authors, not always exempt from historical inaccuracies and pious fables, imposed by the distance between factual events and written records, provided accurate data that allowed to identify and locate the relics, as it was demonstrated above. In addition, they also identified several others devotional manifestations instituted by the Augustinian and the Franciscan in their community houses.
In those monasteries and convents, the Five Martyrs of Morocco were venerated and evoked through the reading of sermons and antiphons and the chanting of novenas and prayers composed for the festive days established in the Church Liturgical Calendar on January 16 th . Moreover, other festivities around the relic's delivery were celebrated in November, at the Franciscan houses, and December, at the Augustinians ones.

The chronistic texts
The impact of the five Italian friars' martyrdom and the contribution made by some of the Portuguese Royal Family members had a direct impact on the chronical narratives dedicated to the reigning monarch in 1220. They are historical texts that, by organizing the information presented, seek, in a way, to corroborate the events mentioned in the hagiographic works dedicated to the subject.
As was evident, the writing of the 1568 treatise was also based on the chronicles of the first Kings of Portugal 95 , referring to the anonymous author, most likely, to the (re)written texts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries dedicated to D.  The joint analysis of these two works makes it possible to assert that the main events were dealt with in only three chapters, corresponding chronologically to the reign of D. Afonso II, with the particular distinction that in the text of the first chronicle the Infante D. Pedro had obtained an autonomous chapter 101 . As the evangelizing mission of the five Franciscan friars was announced, the main events related to the monarchs and the Infantes were immediately dealt with. In this context, one can find an exploration of the contacts and the support given to the friars by Queen D. Urraca, in Coimbra, and by the Infanta D. Sancha, in Alenquer; the rescue and transport of the remains of the martyred by D. Pedro Sanches, from Marrakesh; and the reception of relics by D. Afonso II and D. Urraca in Coimbra.
Over eight of the sixteen chapters of his Chronica 102 , (re)written between 1490 and 1522 103 , Ruy de Pina explored the episode of the route, death and delivery of the relics of the Five Martyrs of Morocco, expressing a preference for the version recorded by the bishop, but without ignoring the other legenda antiqua. D. Pedro Sanches, as in the other chronicles, took a preponderant role in the whole process, but Pina asserted that the Infante, with fervent zeal, was part of the delegation responsible for the delivery of the relics of the Martyrs in Coimbra 104 , a perspective that would eventually be challenged in 1557, by Friar Marcos of Lisboa 105  But despite the variations of the texts, both hagiographic and chronistic, the contribution made by the Infante D. Pedro Sanches in the accompaniment and reception of the five friars in Morocco and in the rescue and transport of their relics to Portugal is unequivocal 108 , to the detriment of the subdued reign of D. Afonso II, marked only by the conquest of Alcácer do Sal, in Alentejo, the disagreements against his sisters -a dispute that led to the invasion of Portugal by the King of Leon and supported by the Infante D. Pedro himself-and by the reception of relics in Coimbra 109 .
As it has been shown, many sources were consulted, directly and indirectly, by the several identified and anonymous authors, all involved in the multiple hagiographic compositions and chronistic narratives around which the Martyrs sacred memory was registered. And despite the royal chronicles not having the same dissemination and influence scale as the hagiographic texts, they allowed to reinforce, nevertheless, the message before the Royal Family and the Court that accompanied it.
In all documentary sources, whether those produced in a devotional context by religious at the service of their communities, or by the royal chroniclers in a historical-political context at the service of the Crown -although there is, of course, a strong religiosity on the part of the Royal Family members-, the support given by the King D. Afonso II near relatives is quite evident.
It is important to point out that the King himself had the least intervening role in the entire process, not only was he absent of Coimbra during the passage of the Franciscan friars by Portugal, he had no part in rescuing their corpses. After the relics arrival, the ceremony in which he participated with the Queen, the King seems to have endeavored to spread their cult. However, the authors were not able to give a greater emphasis to the royal figure, not even in the texts of the chronicles dedicated to him. Furthermore, despite the value of these texts, their dissemination seems to have taken place essentially in the most restricted social and certainly intellectual nobility and the clergy circles.
It is likely that the first relics distributed from the Monastery of Santa Cruz had the King direct intervention. In addition to his religiosity, relics not only gave him protection but also put him closer to the sacred, so it is imperative to consider the monarch's interest to derive some political benefit taking into account the disagreements between D. Afonso II and the infante D. Pedro Sanches.

Iconographic forms
The latent conflict of the Holy War, so driven by the Holy See throughout the thirteenth century, resulted in a combative religiosity to be carried out not only with weapons on the battlefield, but also with words in Christian churches. Pope Gregory X [1210|1271-1276] when calling, in 1272, the Second Council of Lyon, meeting two years later, appealed to the Christian princes and kings to assist in the undertaking of the new crusade with their armies 110 . In the context of the socalled Iberian Reconquest, which aimed at the victory of the Christian cross over the Islamic crescent, the Apostle Saint James cult 111 -a saint to whom the Protomartyrs of Morocco would join in the fight against the Saracens-, would gain particular expression after the sacrifice which took place in North Africa in January 1220.
In order to preserve the bodily remains and worship the sacred memory of the Martyrs, different receptacles and multiple objects were made for veneration in sacred spaces, such as public churches and private chapels. Conceived as privileged devices to establish a continuous dialogue between God and the assemblies of believers, through the intercession of the Protomartyrs -but always through the direct mediation of the ecclesiastical ministers-, the sets of reliquaries, sculptures, illuminations and paintings served with a catechetical and doctrine purpose, inside and outside the main festive days of the celebrations established in the Church's Liturgical Calendar. Consequently, they soon acquired a twofold importance of a political-devotional matrix when they were used to boost cross-cultural endeavors among the populations, by exhorting, publicly and collectively, the feeling of a holy war on the part of the Christian kingdoms, especially the Iberians territories.
Within the scope of artistic production, the iconographic programs explored the main contents of the available hagiographic narratives, which were quite restricted until 1557-1568, dates that mark the beginning of the circulation of Friar Marcos de Lisboa's Chronica and the anonymous Augustinian Tratado, both written based on the old thirteenth century manuscripts. Using a specific imagery representations set, based on a visual discourse with a strong dramatic component drawn from hagiographic documentary sources, the contacts established between the lesser friars -the humble Christian hero-martyrs-and the Miramolim of Morocco -the dominant Muslim villain-infidel-during the evangelization mission in North Africa, which resulted in the inevitable martyrdom, a key event that became the main canon in a chronological horizon that has survived until our times: "As well as the bodily vision of the saints' paintings, a spiritual memory of their unique lives and merits is made, and through it the devotion in souls is renewed to honor and follow them. And for this reason, the Catholic Church, our Mother and Teacher, puts us before each day, in different ways, the glorious memories of 110 the blessed, who struggling in this life against the Devil, world and flesh, were crowned with rest perpetual in glory and immortal fame on earth. How were the five friars' disciples of Saint Francis who will suffer a unique martyrdom in Morocco at the hands of King Miramolim for the faith of Christ and his holy name" 112 .
Conditioned by the sponsors' material possessions, some of the most expressive works of Portuguese religious art were ordered to the artists, from the collective religious communities to the devout private nobles. Since the thirteenth century, unique pieces that reveal the aesthetic canons and the values disseminated by emerging and dominant artistic currents would be executed, mainly by the Coimbra circle artists.
Although the monasteries of Santa Cruz of Coimbra and Santa Maria of Lorvão took over the radiating nuclei of the first liturgical celebrations and the main devotional manifestations around the Five Martyrs of Morocco -which is proven by the antiquity of the known texts-, it is in the extensive network of Franciscan and Clarist convents that the largest number of iconographic representations can be found. In certain cases, a single religious house was responsible for the dissemination of exclusive hagiographic interpretations, associating the journey of the Martyrs with the history of their community and / or the person responsible for its foundation. In others, the awakening of the Franciscan vocation of Saint António is evident from the first contact with the Martyr's relics. And it was precisely in the influence sphere of the Seraphic communities that, from the seventeenth century onwards, new hagiographic themes were explored, as it would also happen in the Augustinian monasteries from the second half of eighteenth century onward.
The analysis of the pieces conceived in the chronological epoch between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries, occasionally complemented by other later ones, makes it possible to point out the privileged themes explored by the artists workshops between the Low Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Although many others have appeared already at the dawn of the Contemporary Era 113 . The devotional iconography dedicated to the Protomartyrs of Morocco, mostly dealt with in the collective, can be grouped into six thematic categories within the hagiographic narrative cycle, two ordinary ones: a) the martyrdom of the five Franciscan friars (represented in ensembles of illuminations 114 , paintings 115 , sculptures 116 , basreliefs 117 , and engravings 118 dated between the fifteenth and twenty-first centuries); b) the collective and individual representation of the same friars, presented martyred and / or in celestial glory, accompanied by the instruments and / or the palms and crowns of martyrdom (represented in sets of paintings 119 , sculpture 120 , gold smithery 121 , stained glass 122 and engraving 123 dated between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries), and four classifieds as extraordinaries: a. the friars' attempt to convert the Almohad caliph (a thirteenth century sculpture 124 component); b. the martyrdom revelation of the five friars to the Infanta D. Sancha in Alenquer (painting 125 and a tile set 126 from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries); c. the alms distribution by the Augustinian canon D. Fernando Martins de Bulhões (Saint António of Lisbon/Padova) to the five Italian Franciscans (a tile set from the eighteenth century 127 ); d. and the relics reception at the Monastery of Santa Cruz, associated with the mule episode, at the exact moment when D. Fernando Martins de Bulhões/ Saint António appears to receive them (engraving 128 from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries) Despite the presented list, it is important to mention that there are references to other artistic works of which the hagiographic models of representation and composition are unknown. For instances, the missing painting commissioned to the Portuguese painter Cristóvão de Figueiredo [? -1543], in 1533, for the main altar of the Church of the Convent of Santo António de Ferreirim, nearby Lamego, which apparently exhibits the martyred friars with Saint Francis and Saint Antonio 129 . Could them be the Martyrs represented in the same painting composition or were they flanked by both Franciscan saints' independent pictures?
In order to facilitate the analytical reading of the pieces selected for this study, each theme's section opens with an excerpt from the Tratado of 1568, thus allowing the identification of the main protagonists and the supporting subjects, locating the action of the events and contextualizing the sequential episodes that occurred in 1220 which are most frequently explored in hagiographic works. Unfortunately, it is not possible to proceed, for the time being, to the analysis of the less representative and latest artistic groups in Portuguese Art, despite the interest they gather around the iconography of the Protomartyrs of Morocco as a justification for the continuity of the devotional practices throughout of the centuries. For this reason, we chose to focus our analysis on the older pieces known between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The Five Martyrs of Morocco
The first physiognomic descriptions of the five Martyrs of Morocco, mentioned in the Tratado of 1568 dedicated to the audiences of the friars with Queen D. Urraca, in Coimbra, and the Infanta D. Sancha Sanches, in Alenquer, reveal that their faces were wrinkled and emaciated, with evident signs of great food abstinence, and wearing the habit of thick burel -a wool fabric-girded by rope and barefoot 130 . During the long journey between Alenquer and Marrakesh, the friars, for a moment, wore some secular attire over their habits, and grew their beards in order to appear as lay travelers in order to go unnoticed by the Saracens 131 .
However, it is in the chapter dedicated to the first meeting between the friars and D. Pedro Sanches, which took place in Marrakesh, that the most enlightening physiognomic and bodily descriptions emerge. At this meeting the friars presented themselves: "Thin, full of wrinkles, and yellow in complexion, like withered men, the skin had stuck to the bones, the eyes were inward, which was something that was misshapen in appearance [...] the bodies were bent and displayed all their weakness, for the great abstinence and for the many blows and lashes received in Seville, their flesh was broken and smitten" 132 .
Also, the vile robes, which departing from their passage in Portugal showed the commitment to the vows which had been taken in Assisi and the torments experienced in Sevilla, as they were: "Habits of thick and rough burel, short, narrow and full of patches, exhausted of all their art and with curious features, tight and girded with ropes, they seemed like such, in their costumes and in their enthusiastic words, as in everything else, dead men or those who came from another world to this one and totally mortified" 133 .
Although all these descriptive elements were not taken into account, especially around the martyred, the artists conferred in some of their works particularizing aspects of their genuine status. In the majority of the painting works, the lesser brothers were usually represented with different facial anatomical features and with the tonsure, an identifying element of the entry into the clerical state of three of the five friars, in contrast to two without the head border.
Only the reliquaries-busts pair ordered for the Monastery of Santa Cruz assumes a particular preponderance in the detailed individualization of two of the five martyrs (See illustrations 4 and 5). Although the two anthropomorphic receptacles were ordered by D. Pedro Vaz Gavião [?-1516], in 1510, it was King D. Manuel I, on February 14, 1520, who had paid eighty silver marks for both. Each one of the reliquaries, with their padlocks and keys, weighed twenty-three marks and six silver ounces 134 and were designed with articulating bodies to allow the display of the relics kept inside during the celebrative dates at the monastic church, especially but not exclusively, in January and December.
The rigor and accuracy of some anatomical features allow the identification of two distinct individuals, both friars with tonsure wearing a Franciscan habit, 134 Illustrations 4-5. Reliquaries-busts of the martyrs of Morocco at the Santa Cruz monastery. coimbra workshop -João rodrigues. c. 1510. Silver, golden silver, iron, glass and damask fabricbone relics. Dimensions (left bust): 32 cm height x 21,5 cm wide x 12.5 cm deep. Dimensions (right bust): 31 cm height x 20 cm wide x 13 cm deep. original and current location: monastery of santa cruz of coimbra.
illustrations provided by milton pedro dias pacheco.
recognized by the hood that falls on their back. In order to exalt the patron's memory, the reliquaries-busts were endowed with an inscription on the lower rear section, divided into two independent cards that complement each other. Despite having a central role in this entire hagiographic episode, the caliph Yūsuf al-Mustanşir -commonly identified as Miramolim-, was never physically described. The only description reveals his state of mind during the last of the three hearings granted to the friars 135 , which took place on January 16, 1220. At that moment, as in other previous ones, as we shall see, the Miramolim was utterly outraged by the friars psychological and physical resistance, eventually suffering a ferocious reaction "full of venomous anger and with red eyes" 136 .

The Five Franciscan Friars attempt to convert the Miramolim in Marrakesh
The oldest iconographic representation of the Moroccan Protomartyrs evokes the audience granted by Miramolim to the five friars in Marrakesh, one of the three mentioned in the 1568 treatise, a hagiographic text that makes it possible to know part of the dialogues and the reactions of the main protagonists 137 .
Approached by Abozaide, a servant from the caliph's court, Friar Ottone pleaded with him: "We do not ask you to do anything else, except that you would be pleased and do well and take us before the King [the Miramolim] so that we can see his face, because we hope that he will come into the knowledge of the truth of the faith of Christ" 138 .
After the first hearing was achieved, Friar Berardo presented himself to the caliph Yūsuf al-Mustanşir as the superior of the group of Franciscan missionaries tasked with delivering the "faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, which if you firmly believe in you will not be condemned to eternal death in Hell with your false Muhammad" 139 . Naturally, the Christian friar's arrogant stance and the proposal to convert to Christianity outraged the Almohad caliph: "With these words the King became very angry, and with anger he got up and left for a little time and meanwhile the saints were saying to each other. Brothers, here is the time we wait, this is the day of our health. We should be very happy because 135 our Lord was happy to let us reach out to preach the divine word to this king and his unfaithful people in the righteousness of God whose death saved us" 140 . This is the moment, the first one of the three audiences granted, chosen symbolically for the design of the reliquary-urn intended to receive the relics offered to the Monastery of Santa Maria of Lorvão, the oldest known artistic representation dedicated to the Protomartyrs of Morocco (See illustrations 6-9).
Regardless of the most assertive title to designate the confrontation engraved in stone, from the religious dispute 141 to the theological debate 142 originated between the Italian friars and the Muslim caliph considering his conversion to the Christian faith 143 , the composition shows the protagonists in a clearly westernized setting designed to place the represented action in space and date it in time, the Marrakesh Caliphal Palace days before January 16 th , 1220. Illustration 6. Reliquary-urn of the martyrs of morocco located at the mosteiro of lorvão cloister between 1862 and 1875. portuguese sculpture workshop -coimbra circle. around 1290-1320. ançã limestone. Original location: monastery of santa maria of lorvão. current location: museu nacional de machado de castro (inv. no. 578 / e15). illustration provided by milton pedro dias pacheco.
Represented in his real condition, the Miramolim, enthroned and wearing Western attire, has his head and left arm raised, bodily gestures that suggest the dialogue he had with the lesser brother -apparently, Friar Berardo, the main interpreter of the evangelizing mission and the most (or the only one?) knowledgeable in the Arabic language 144 -represented in a reverential position, with his head uncovered and tilted, his hands juxtaposed and his leg slightly genuflected. In our point of view, the identification of Yūsuf al-Mustanşir and Friar Berardo da Calvi is quite evident.
Their fellow missionaries seem to be apparently oblivious to the speech, probably because they do not speak the language. The execution of the sculptural figures reveals a marked anatomical disproportion, with the over-dimensioning of the head in relation to the body, smoothed only by the technical effects introduced in the heads position, in the disposition of the bodies, in the placement of the lower limbs and the gesticulation of the upper limbs, and in the modeling of facial expressions.
Conceived within the models of the current national tombs and close to the molds of imported foreign reliquaries chests, the receptacle urn was executed in a single block of the delicate limestone from Ançã, a village nearby Coimbra, in a trapezoidal shape. With the disappearance of the original top, a wooden one was placed, as shown by a photographic record from the end of the nineteenth century. Probably it was executed in formal proximity and stylistic models as the one which was created for the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra, since it was in one part wider than in the other, containing at the main facet the narrative of martyrdom 145 . This main front, the only ornamented section of the reliquary-urn, appears to have been polychromed as suggested by the identification of different present elements. The consensually accepted chronology for its execution is found between the years 1290 and 1317, a period corresponding to D. Constança Soares' time as abbess 146 . But the detailed analysis of the work makes it possible to find in the trilobed arches, converted into small buildings to compartmentalize the characters, a solution already known since the second half of the thirteenth century, in the facet of the tomb of Infante D. Rodrigo Sanches [?-1245] located at the Monastery of Salvador of Grijó 147 , in Vila Nova de Gaia. Other microarchitecture elements used in different thirteenth century sculptural ensembles can be found, such as in the bas-relief from the Chapel of Santa Comba, in Coimbra, illustrating a Calvary and the delivery of the chasuble to Saint Ildefonso episodes 148 . In the historical capitals of the Monastery of Santa Maria of Celas cloister, in Coimbra, other resemblances can be also identified, namely on the episodes of the Annunciation in the Marian capital, of the Last Supper in the capital of the Passion either of Saint Bento or Saint Bernardo in the capital with the Cistercian founders 149 .
Could the Celas capitals set, probably conceived in the second half of thirteenth century, have been made in the same workshop responsible for the execution of the Lorvão reliquary-urn, as already suggested by some Art historians 150 ? Furthermore, in pieces with identical functions and/ or shapes executed on a previous date, it is common to find the same trilobed arches to stress the protagonists of a prodigy or miracle, such as the reliquary of the Magi from the Cologne Cathedral, dated 1170-1230, the reliquary of the head of Saint Eustachian originating from the Cathedral of Basel, from c.1180-1200 151 , and the reliquary chest belonging to the Cathedral of Viseu Treasury 152 .
There are older objects models produced in this same European religious context and historic time that could have influenced its conception, namely reliquaries, but for the time being is not possible to assure that the sponsors and artists had known them, especially in the distant and peripheral Coimbra. Without reliable documentary sources this exercise cannot be done.

The martyrdom of the five Franciscan Friars in Marrakesh
During the second hearing given by the Miramolim, probably in January 1220, the friars, anticipating the desired sacrifice, answered to him: "Our bodies belong to you, do unto them all evil and pity that you want and can do, but know that the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God [...] at the time that our souls are separated from the bodies, in that same [time] we will be with Christ" 153 . After the third and final hearing, granted on January 16 th , with the refusal of all premises by the friars, the angry caliph: "Asked for his sword and as soon as it was brought to him, publicly, before the many people, he separated them from each other, and thus separated, with his own hands, being on his knees and with the hands and spirits raised to heaven, to all cut off the heads in the middle of the forehead. And after that, lying their bodies on the ground, the Miramolim, not satisfied and not yet tired of that cruelty, with double fury of a red wolf, asked for two more swords and with the three of them, beheaded them, one after another, applying ugly and very cruel blows to the bodies. from which came that precious blood that washed the soil of the courtyard" 154 .
The day of glorious martyrdom had finally arrived: "just as they offered their bodies and whole spirits to receive Him in Christ, so He, with all the sacred company of angels and saints, received their blessed souls at once in glory" 155 . These are the textual excerpts of the most ancient hagiographic treatise on which the main figurative representations of the lesser brothers are based, who, when transgressing Koranic laws, the crime of blasphemy against Islam and offense against the Prophet -Ja'fari-, and in the refusing of the conversion to Islam, received death as punishment.
The fourteenth century illuminated parchment from the Santa Cruz Monastery, where it would certainly have been designed and coloured, presents the oldest imagistic representation of the martyrdom of the five Franciscan friars, perhaps inspired or used as a model for the reliquary-urn iconographic program, commissioned by the same community in 1458. 153 The Beheading of the Martyrs of Morocco shows the exact moment of preparation for the execution of the second friar by the Almohad caliph in Muslim territory, in North Africa, as he intends to illustrate in the representation of the soil punctuated by crescent moons (see Illustration 2). The scene shows the Miramolim, wearing an outfit and wielding an object of a clear Westernized matrix, grabbing the second friar's tonsure with his left hand, while wielding the sword with his right one, already bloodied from the blow to the first friar, whose head lies at his feet and whose corpse was still holding upright since it was supported by the third friar's body.
The violence of the act seems to be overcome by the contemplative attitude of the first two friars. One of them is already dead and the other is in the imminence of death, as suggested by the position of the hands juxtaposed in a praying attitude, and by the presence, at the top of the scene, of two angels in charge of collecting the cleared soul of the first martyr as well as those of the following. All of them wear a brown Franciscan habit, tied by a white rope with three knots, but only one, the fifth friar, holds the attribute associated with the mission that had taken them to North Africa to receive martyrdom: the Gospel book.
This same martyrdom concept was overcome in the pictorial composition that adorns the reliquary-oratory commissioned by D. Catarina d'Eça, the Monastery of Lorvão abbess, not only because of the representation of the Miramolim, wearing a traditional Arabian robe and scimitar, but, above all, for the presentation of the five friars stripped of their habits, wearing only their undergarments, and the dissemination of blood in the soil (See illustration 7). This receptacle, a piece endowed with an identical trilobed arch at the top, used in the stone reliquary urn of the same monastic house, is without any doubt one of the most reliable pictorial representations of the moment of the martyrdom inflicted by Miramolim over the Franciscan friars 156 .
From the sixteenth century onwards, the hagiographic themes and artistic models were maintained, with the presence of the friars receiving the blows inflicted by the caliph and his servants -thus revealing open wounds, running blood and spiked cutlasses-with only an increase in the number the executioners who help the latter in collective execution.
Denoting the influence of Nordic artistic workshops in the Portuguese cultural context, the painting of the Beheading of the Five Martyrs of Morocco, conceived by Francisco Henriques [?-1518] for the main altarpiece of the Church of the Convent of São Francisco of Évora, between 1508 and 1511. This painting shows the moment of the execution of the last friar, not by the Miramolim -who in his royal condition only watches the scene-, but by the two executioners of his court. In the hagiographic context and in the artistic panorama, the pictorial composition acquires greater importance due to the detail given to the habits of the friars, individualized by the different colour gradation of the burels in correspondence with the respective 156. Reliquary-oratory of the Martyrs of Morocco. Silver, golden silver, wood, pearls, semi-precious stones and relics (human bone). Portuguese workshop, Henrique Domingues and António Domingues (c. 1514). Dimensions: 36 cm Height X 26.6 cm Width. X 6 cm. MNMC, Inv. No. 6089/ O23. sacred orders: two priests (Friars Berardo and Ottone), one deacon (Friar Pietro) and two professed brothers (Friars Accursio and Adiuto).
Lisbon, there is the retable painting of the Protomartyrs of Morocco. The work is still in display in a museum context at the Museu de Setúbal (see illustration 8).
The composition shows the Franciscan friars who were subjected to their executioners, four in number, and unlike the previous work, the Miramolim participates in their execution. While the executioners display the corresponding clothing and armament with their North African cultural origin, the friars -four still alive-, wear habits with different gradations of colour. The scene takes place outside the palace, building a clear European conception, at the moment when the souls of the martyred are about to ascend to God.
From the sixteenth century onwards, this was certainly the most reproduced hagiographic episode dedicated to the Protomartyrs of Morocco in Portugal, not only in large pictorial compositions or small pieces of devotional jewelry, but also in simple engravings, such as the one that illustrates the frontispiece of the Primeira Parte das Chronicas da ordem dos frades Menores printed in 1557.

Final conclusions
The impact caused by the five Franciscan friars martyrdom had strong repercussions not only among Christians but also among Muslims. While several missionary groups continued to leave from the Christian kingdoms, among them the famous Saint António of Lisbon/Padova, in the Muslim territories there was some openness that allowed the first Franciscan communities to establish in Morocco. However, until then, many martyrs gave their lives to make this possible.
Meanwhile, at the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra the first worship celebrations and the main devotional manifestations would arise, and the Monastery of Santa Maria of Lorvão would soon follow suit. From these two monastic houses, relics were preserved, and shared, hagiographic texts were produced and distributed, and iconographic models were created and disseminated around the Portuguese Kingdom.
The contribution of the leading religious communities established in Portugal, in all their devotional and venerating practices promoted around the Protomartyrs of Morocco, was unequivocally supported by the main members of the Royal Family of D. Afonso II despite the disagreements among several siblings of the King. If the outcast D. Pedro played a crucial role in the relics rescue in Morocco and then with their delivery to Coimbra, his sisters promoted and supported the martyr's cult through the monasteries under their protection. The monarchs, on the other hand, participated on the reception ceremony at the Monastery of Santa Cruz and actively supported their worship, interceding directly in the delivery of the first relics and in the sponsoring of some of the first reliquaries. Despite the differences between D. Afonso II and his brothers, which even originated a military conflict years before, the support given by all to the Protomartyrs veneration made it possible to reunite family members in faith and fame.
The profound connection between the Crown and the Martyrs of Morocco cult would continue to attract the attention of successive Portuguese monarchs, through the sponsoring of chapels and altars, reliquaries and other sacred objects. Among some of those offers were the receptacles that kept the corporeal remains of the martyred, exquisite and valuable reliquaries in which the relics were deposited, veiled and worshiped. Studies carried out on the largest relics set made it possible to confirm some of the written and transcribed descriptions from the thirteenth century.
Despite the abundance of ancient sources, even if partial and conceived without a long-term vision between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, this is a difficult topic to delve into for the initial period since the works that have reached us have been contaminated by the authors responsible for copying them over the centuries. The many reservations expressed throughout the study are mainly founded on the difficulty of finding a reliable and cohesive documentary base, as the variant narratives show up.
The context in which these sources were conceived reveals an intentional appropriation by the main coeval institutions, directly and indirectly related to the rescue of relics and the impulse of the first devotional manifestations. The Monastery of Santa Cruz should be pointed out once again. While the Church had the obligation to extol the names of those who had defended the Christian Faith with their own lives, the Crown had the necessity to reaffirm the support given to the Church and consequently to reinforce its own political power.
The historical elements perpetuated in the documentary sources, especially in the hagiographic works promoted by the Portuguese Church, considering that the royal chronicles would end up having a more restricted circulation among society, were continually being explored by the artists through the instructions entrusted to them. The various moments of the biographical/ hagiographic journey of the five Franciscan friars were thus passed on to the sculpted stone, the painted canvas, wood and parchment, and the cast silver. And the central point of the artistic narrative was essentially concentrated mostly on the friars and caliph reunion, which would result in their death. However, the intention to dignify the friars' figures led the artists to hide innumerable human and material figurative elements, such as body scars, and wear and tear resulting from the ill-treatment received for several months in Seville and especially in Marrakesh. Only in some paintings the friars' extreme thinness is quite evident.
The violence of the beheading act represented at different stages, with a greater dramatic intensity especially when painting was applied in reliquaries, made it possible to appeal to the innermost believers' feelings. In a clear and unequivocal way as the oldest examples known in Portugal demonstrate, it can be said that the iconography privileged the moment of the five Franciscan friars' massacre either by the orders or by hands of the Almohad caliph himself. At the same time, these representations made it possible to nourish the Holy War spirit against the enemy of the Christian Faith. However, this was not the motive that had driven the various Franciscans groups. Among these particular and original set of art works produced in Portugal it is necessary to emphasize the importance of a single representation that portrays one of the encounters between the friars and the caliph, in a clear allusion to the true Franciscan spirit, with the mission of converting the infidels to the Christian religion not through weapons but through words. The message would eventually be distorted and would fuel successive bloody religious conflicts that still persist in some regions of the world today.