John Baptist de Faria

Last updated

John Baptist de Faria was born in 1871, in Portugal. He was a graduate of the School of Medicine and Surgery, Lisbon, 1896, and interned at the Maternity and Hospital for Women at Lisbon. [1] Following his hospital work there, he served on the staffs of civil and military hospitals in the Portuguese possessions of Portuguese Cape Verde and Portuguese Guinea, Africa. [1] Later he went to the United States with his wife and children and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Contents

In 1902 Dr. de Faria arrived in Honolulu and was licensed to practice in September of that year. His office and residence was located on Alakea Street; and he specialized in obstetrics and diseases of women. [1]

Controversy

Within a few days of being licensed, Dr. de Faria was implicated by a fellow physician in a romantic tangle, which surely must have been the talk of Honolulu. Dr. Luiz Alvarez, Spanish born physician, brought a clipping from the Independente, a Portuguese newspaper published in New Bedford, to the office of the Advertiser to call attention to an article about a Dr. Faria who, leaving his wife and children, had run away with Mrs. Sanders, who also took her husband's savings when she left. Dr. Alvarez claimed that Dr. de Faria practicing medicine in Honolulu and the Dr. Faria of the newspaper article were one and the same, and the story appeared, together with Dr. Alvarez's accusations, on September 26, 1902.

On the following day a letter from Dr. de Faria was published in the Advertiser in which he denied that he was running away or trying to hide his identity and accused Dr. Alvarez of professional jealousy because he had refused to enter into a partnership with Alvarez. However, he did not deny running away with another man's wife, merely stating that he would take up that matter when the sheriff came to get him. A few days later the Advertiser carried Dr. Alvarez's rebuttal to Dr. de Faria's letter in which he countered that he could hardly have thought of offering a partnership to a man he did not know. He also contended that Dr. de Faria did not use his own name on arriving in Honolulu and brought no character references with him, in spite of knowing that he would have to produce such references in order to be granted a license to practice medicine. He further accused Dr. de Faria of giving Alvarez's name to the Board of Health as a character reference without his knowledge or consent. With this the verbal sparring between the medicos comes to an end - at least in the pages of the Advertiser.

However, there is an amazing sequel to this affair of the heart, which is recounted in the Advertiser for March 26, 1903, under a New Bedford dateline. The story describes how Mrs. de Faria sent her four children to Portugal and then set out with only $100 to search for her husband. Eventually, she found herself in San Francisco where the trail ended. While working at odd jobs in the hopes that some clue would turn up, Mrs. de Faria happened to pick up a Honolulu newspaper, and, in turning through the pages, came across Dr. de Faria's business card. Her meager savings were just enough to pay her passage to Honolulu. On arrival, her sudden appearance and the tale of her untiring search so moved her husband that the two were reunited. According to the story, the reunion was further helped by the fact that the romance between the doctor and Mrs. Sanders was cooling due to the lady's interest in a young Army officer. In any event, the tale ends with the doctor and his wife departing secretly for Portugal "never to return" and leaving Mrs. Sanders deserted and without funds in Honolulu.

Return

Whether or not Dr. de Faria went to Portugal in 1903 is not known, but he is listed as president of the articles of association of the Liberdade Publishing Company, Ltd. filed in October, 1903, in Honolulu. [2] Certainly, he had returned to Honolulu and was in practice by 1904 when he became a member of the Hawaiian Territorial Medical Society. [1] During his years in Honolulu he was the originator and chief promoter of A Pátria, a Portuguese society whose objects were financial benefit, social intercourse, and the education of its members.

Leaving the Islands in August, 1905, the doctor set out on the first leg of a trip which was to take him to Portugal, France and Germany to study and visit medical institutions. On his return he located in Oakland, California, where he practiced for a number of years. The 1923 Medical Directory lists him as still living in Oakland, but after that he is not listed and nothing further is known about him.

Related Research Articles

Maria II of Portugal Queen of Portugal and the Algarves

Dona Maria II "the Educator" or "the Good Mother", reigned as Queen of Portugal from 1826 to 1828, and again from 1834 to 1853. Born in Rio de Janeiro, she was the first child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina, and thus a member of the House of Braganza. One of the two surviving children born when Pedro was still heir apparent to Portugal, she inherited Portuguese titles and was placed in the line of succession to the former Portuguese throne, even after becoming a member of the Brazilian Imperial Family, from which she was excluded in 1835 after her definitive ascension to the Portuguese throne.

Afonso, Prince of Portugal Prince of Portugal

Afonso, Prince of Portugal was the heir apparent to the throne of Portugal. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in a horse-riding accident on the banks of the river Tagus.

António Egas Moniz Portuguese neurologist (1874–1955)

António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz, known as Egas Moniz, was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern psychosurgery, having developed the surgical procedure leucotomy—​better known today as lobotomy—​for which he became the first Portuguese national to receive a Nobel Prize in 1949.

Theresa Laʻanui

Theresa Owana Kaʻōhelelani Laʻanui was a descendant of Kalokuokamaile, the eldest brother of Kamehameha I. She was a member of the House of Laʻanui, a collateral branch of the House of Kamehameha.

Nevada Stoody Hayes

Nevada Stoody Hayes, sometimes called Nevada of Braganza, was an American socialite who became the wife of Infante Afonso of Braganza, Duke of Porto, whose nephew, Manuel II, was the last king of Portugal. She was the Princess Royal of Portugal, but never accepted as a member of the exiled Portuguese royal family, yet by Portuguese law her marriage to Afonso was legal.

João Teixeira de Faria Brazilian faith healer and convicted sex-offender

João Teixeira de Faria, known also as João de Deus, is a Brazilian purported medium, "psychic surgeon" and convicted sex offender. He was based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he ran the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, a "spiritual healing center". He has received media coverage on CNN, ABC News and The Oprah Winfrey Show, amongst others. James Randi and Joe Nickell have exposed his healing procedures as involving nothing more than carnival tricks, and there is no evidence that the benefits that have been reported by patients are anything more than placebo effects.

José Tomás de Sousa Martins

Dr José Tomás de Sousa Martins was a doctor renowned for his work for the poor in Lisbon, Portugal. After his death, a secular cult arose around his personality in which he is thanked for "miraculous" cures.

Anandi Gopal Joshi One of the first Indian woman doctor, alongside Kadambini Ganguly

Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi was one of the first Indian female doctors of western medicine alongside Kadambini Ganguly. She was the first woman from the erstwhile Bombay presidency of India to study and graduate with a two-year degree in western medicine in the United States. She was also referred to as Anandibai Joshi and Anandi Gopal Joshi.

<i>The Blue Afternoon</i> 1993 book by William Boyd

The Blue Afternoon (1993) is a novel by William Boyd. It won the Sunday Express Book of the Year in the year of its publication and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction.

Hugo José Jorge O'Neill was the head of the Clanaboy O'Neill dynasty, whose family has been in Portugal since the 18th century.

Samuel Nunez (1668–1744) was a Portuguese physician and among the earliest Jews to settle in North America.

Baltasar Rebelo de Sousa

Baltazar Leite Rebelo de Sousa, GCIH was a Portuguese politician and a former minister and member of parliament and medicine professor.

William Hillebrand

Wilhelm or William Hillebrand was a German physician. He practiced medicine in several different countries, including for over 20 years in the Hawaiian islands. In 1850, Hillebrand lived at what is now Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu and gained acknowledgement as a botanist.

Dwight Baldwin (missionary) American Christian missionary and physician on Maui during the Kingdom of Hawaii

Dwight Baldwin was an American Christian missionary and medical doctor on Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands, during the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was patriarch of a family that founded some of the largest businesses in the islands.

Maria Adelaide de Bragança

Dona Maria Adelaide of Braganza, Infanta of Portugal was a member of the royal house of Braganza, daughter of Miguel, Duke of Braganza and Princess Maria Theresa of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.

Dr. Jesse Bennett was the first American physician to perform a successful Caesarean section, which he performed on his own wife at the birth of their only child on January 14, 1794.

Dr. Breen's Practice is a novel, one of the earlier works by American author and literary critic William Dean Howells. Houghton Mifflin originally published the novel in 1881 in both Boston and New York. Howells wrote in the realist style, creating a faithful representation of the commonplace, and in this case describing everyday mannerisms that embody the daily lives of middle-class people.

Lilian Violet Cooper

Lilian Violet Cooper was a British-born medical practitioner in Queensland, Australia. She was the first female doctor registered in Queensland.

Helen Strong Carter

Helen Strong Carter (1866–1945) was First Lady of the Territory of Hawaii from 1903 to 1907. Her philanthropic activities included the establishment of the Strong-Carter Dental Clinic at Palama Settlement in Hawaii, and the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.

Elísio de Moura

Elísio de Moura Azevedo, was a physician and professor Portuguese psychiatrist and first president of the College of Physicians in 1939.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Supplement: Hawaiian Islands". Polk's Medical Register and Directory of North America (8th ed.). Detroit: R.L. Polk & Co. 2: 2147B. 1904. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  2. Pacific Commercial Advertiser. "Portuguese Publishing Company." October 9, 1903, p. 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2015.