José Hermano Saraiva


José Hermano Baptista Saraiva GCIH • GCIP was a Portuguese professor, historian and jurist. He was most known as a television personality in Portugal, having been the author and presenter of several documentary series of historical divulgation in the last decades.

Biography

Hermano Saraiva was a professor of law and business management. He was Minister of Education of Portugal between 1968 and 1970 and ambassador to Brazil between 1972 and 1974. He lectured in the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Política Ultramarina at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, and in private teaching institutes.
Saraiva is most famous in Portugal, but also among Portuguese communities around the world, on account of his television programs on the History of Portugal, broadcast by RTP. He was a member of the Sciences Academy of Lisbon, Portuguese Academy of History and São Paulo Historical Institute in Brazil.
Hermano Saraiva was distinguished with the Grã-Cruz of the Order of Public Instruction, Grã-Cruz of the Order of Prince Henry, the Grã-Cruz of the Order of Barão do Rio Branco of Brazil, the Grã-Cruz of the Ordem do Mérito do Trabalho and the Comendador da Real Ordem de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Vila Viçosa.
His supporters point out his qualities as a television communicator and of spreader of the History of Portugal to the least instructed people in the country and to the Portuguese communities outside Portugal.

Personal life

Hermano Saraiva was born in Leiria, the third of the six sons of José Leonardo Venâncio Saraiva and wife Maria da Ressurreição Baptista Saraiva. Amongst his siblings is :pt:António José Saraiva|António José Saraiva, a known investigator in the area of literature, and his nephew :pt:José António Saraiva|José António Saraiva worked as a journalist and architect. One of his maternal uncles was the last living Portuguese veteran of the First World War.
Saraiva married Maria de Lourdes de Bettencourt de Sá Nogueira, daughter of Rodrigo de Sá Nogueira and wife Maria Luísa Rodrigues de Bettencourt, fathering five children.
Saraiva died, aged 92, in Setúbal.

Television shows