The Igreja Matriz de São Sebastião (the Mother Church of Saint Sebastian) on Terceira Island is one of the most historically significant religious buildings in the Azores, dating back to 1455.
About This Site
The Igreja Matriz de São Sebastião (the Mother Church of Saint Sebastian) on Terceira Island is one of the most historically significant religious buildings in the Azores, with its foundation dating back to the mid-15th century (around 1455) during the initial settlement of the island. Originally established by some of the island’s first residents, the church evolved from a primitive chapel into a grand three-nave structure that showcases a rare fusion of architectural styles, most notably the late-Gothic Manueline style visible in its ornate portals. Throughout the centuries, it served as a spiritual fortress for the community, surviving seismic activity and undergoing various renovations that added Baroque altars and Manueline-era frescoes, which were rediscovered during a 20th-century restoration. Today, it stands as a National Monument, prized for its unique "Indo-Portuguese" influence and its status as a testament to the early maritime expansion and religious devotion of the Portuguese explorers.
The church is modeled on Santa Maria do Olival in Tomar, through its sturdy three-nave structure and its tripartite head with a central main chapel. This architectural link was established because the Order of Christ in Tomar held spiritual authority over the Azores, leading early builders to replicate the Order's headquarters as a symbol of religious continuity.
Connection to Oak Island
The Igreja Matriz de São Sebastião is the oldest church in the Azores, built in 1455 under the Order of Christ, the Portuguese successor to the Knights Templar founded by King Denis in 1318. It carries direct iconographic evidence of continuity between the suppressed Templar order and the maritime arm of medieval Portugal that operated in the Azores during the 15th century. Three of the four corners of one of its chapels carry three-pronged goose paw carvings, one of them still bearing original red pigment. The goose paw is a Templar pilgrim's mark, scratched by travellers on the Camino de Santiago to mark the end of their journey, and was used by the order at sacred sites across the Mediterranean and Europe between the 12th and 14th centuries. The same symbol has been documented at the Templar caves of Camerano in Italy and on a stone at a beach in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, fifty miles from Oak Island. The continuity between the Mediterranean original, the Azorean instances, and the Nova Scotian carving forms one leg of the geographic corridor the team has been building from Portugal across the Atlantic.
Fieldwork Notes
Visited in S13E23 (April 2026) by Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, Doug Crowell, Peter Fornetti, Corjan Mol, and Emiliano Aversano, in the company of historians Francisco Nogueira and Manuel. Corjan Mol discovered and documented the nine goose paw carvings at three corners of the chapel interior, confirmed the retained red pigment on each group, and discussed the chapel's construction under the Order of Christ against the possibility of Portuguese activity on Terceira before its official claim by Prince Henry the Navigator in 1427.
