Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Chairman of Caixa Geral de Depósitos,
President of the Association of Portuguese Authors,
Professor Doctor Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are gathered here today to pay a tribute to Doctor Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira, to whom the Association of Portuguese Authors attributed, in all fairness, the Literary Life Prize. As an individuality with great national and international prestige, her work speaks for itself.

She is our most reputable specialist in classical studies. The ease with which she deals with ancient writings – translating them into Portuguese, editing them in their original form, analysing them or comparing them with our recent literary works – caused her to be an example and a living symbol of what truly is contemporary humanism.

Portuguese culture will be eternally grateful to her for the perseverance and enthusiasm with which she has known how to contribute towards maintaining alive the interest for the humanities and the dialogue with our Graeco-Roman matrix.

But Doctor Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira, in addition to this dimension of humanist intellectuality, which she doubtlessly possesses as few do, is also a brilliant professor who, although retired, continues to influence the work of her followers.

She was not content to be just a researcher, given over to the legitimate pleasure of studying or writing her books, but also dedicated herself heart and soul to what has always been her home, the University of Coimbra. There she taught and trained successive generations of students. There she led and energized research teams. There she delivered followers. In a word, there she created a school of knowledge.

At a time when we are faced almost daily with issues linked to education, it is extremely gratifying to be able to point out the example of people who have dedicated themselves to the cause of teaching and have thus become professionally fulfilled, infecting others with the passion for knowledge, culture and art.

We are well aware that this is not easy, and much less so when working in an area of knowledge, such as classical studies, when students are few and society does not provide incentives since there are no immediate practical results to be shown.

But societies do not live just from what is immediate. Such as trees, they need that their roots are cared for, because there they will find the cement which assures their cohesion and allows them to view the future with confidence.

The whole history of European culture has been a constant return to its origins, to Classical Antiquity. And if we are to believe that the project of a United Europe continues today, more up to date than ever, it is because the European nations still have in their genetic code a number of wisdoms, values and beliefs that they share in common, and which were bequeathed them by the Greeks and the Romans.

Due to all these reasons, our recognition and gratitude will never be excessive for researchers such as Doctor Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira, whose talent and dedication will continue preserving and rejuvenating this heritage, thus allowing today’s citizens a relationship of proximity with the most ancient sources of our culture and our civilization.

Personally and on behalf of the Portuguese it is my wish, Madam, to address you my sincere congratulations for having been awarded this prize, for the «literary life» it is crowning, and for all that you have accomplished for the prestige of our literature and our Country. I hope you may continue for many years to share with us the results of your rigorous and fruitful intellectual labours.