Memorial do Convento Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Baltasar Mateus (Sete-Sóis)

A soldier who lost his left hand in war and wears a hook instead; he seeks permission to beg, then finds purpose as the Passarola's hands and Blimunda's lover. The Inquisition burns him for the flying machine, but his will is not lost.

Appears in:: Part 1: A King's Bargain, a Soldier's Return; Part 2: The Passarola and the First Stone; Part 3: Flight, Flight from the Inquisition, and Nine Years of Searching; Part 4: Consecration and Combustion
Themes:: The will as the only true power; Love against institutions; Faith, heresy, and who gets burned

Blimunda (Sete-Luas)

A young woman with mysterious eyes who, when fasting, can see inside people and objects — including the dark wills that rise from the dying. Daughter of a woman exiled as a witch, she gathers wills to power the Passarola and spends nine years walking Portugal to find Baltasar.

Appears in:: Part 1: A King's Bargain, a Soldier's Return; Part 2: The Passarola and the First Stone; Part 3: Flight, Flight from the Inquisition, and Nine Years of Searching; Part 4: Consecration and Combustion
Themes:: The will as the only true power; Love against institutions; Faith, heresy, and who gets burned

Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão

A priest building the Passarola, a flying machine powered by human wills trapped in glass globes. Hunted by the Inquisition, he flees to Spain and dies in Toledo, leaving the machine and its secret to Baltasar and Blimunda.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Passarola and the First Stone; Part 3: Flight, Flight from the Inquisition, and Nine Years of Searching
Themes:: Love against institutions; Faith, heresy, and who gets burned

King Dom João V

A king who trades a convent for an heir, then builds it with Brazil's gold and his subjects' lives. Pious and hypocritical, he keeps a nun at Odivelas as his mistress while the treasury empties.

Appears in:: Part 1: A King's Bargain, a Soldier's Return
Themes:: Monuments and the unnamed dead

Also in the story

Supporting characters

Queen Maria Ana

The queen whose pregnancy triggers the whole catastrophe. Lonely and neglected by the king, she finds solace in prayer and embroidery while her isolation mirrors the country's.

Appears in:: Part 1: A King's Bargain, a Soldier's Return
Themes:: Love against institutions

Francisco Marques

A laborer crushed to death when the first convent stone slips during its procession. His name, the narrator notes, appears in no chronicle — he stands for every unrecorded death the monument required.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Passarola and the First Stone
Themes:: Monuments and the unnamed dead; The narrator who won't leave you alone

How they are connected

Key relationships

Baltasar Mateus (Sete-Sóis)Blimunda (Sete-Luas)
A soldier who lost his left hand in war and wears a hook instead; he seeks permission to beg, then finds purpose as the Passarola's hands and Blimunda's lover.
Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão Baltasar Mateus (Sete-Sóis)
Hunted by the Inquisition, he flees to Spain and dies in Toledo, leaving the machine and its secret to Baltasar and Blimunda.
Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão Blimunda (Sete-Luas)
Hunted by the Inquisition, he flees to Spain and dies in Toledo, leaving the machine and its secret to Baltasar and Blimunda.

Go deeper

Memorial do Convento themes & symbols

Monuments and the unnamed dead · The will as the only true power · Love against institutions · The narrator who won't leave you alone

Themes explained

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