Robert Reid Kalley (September 1809 – 17 January 1888) was aScottish physician andPresbyterian, laterCongregationalist,missionary notable for his efforts to spread Presbyterian views inPortuguese-speaking territories and as the introducer ofProtestantism in Portugal at a time when the only religion allowed to the Portuguese citizens wasRoman Catholicism.
Kalley was born on 8 September 1809 at 13 Trongate inGlasgow, the son of Robert Kalley, a tea merchant.[1] His father died when he was young. His mother remarried but then died herself, so he was raised by his stepfather. He attendedGlasgow Grammar School. From 1823 he studied Arts atGlasgow University. From 1826 to 1829 he then studied Medicine, graduating MB ChB in Pharmacy and Surgery. He then worked as a ship's doctor in theBombay area and as aGeneral practitioner in theKilmarnock area before gaining his doctorate (MD) in 1838.[2]
Kalley first went toMadeira Island in 1838 with his wife Margaret Crawford, whom he had just married. She was ill with tuberculosis and the move was intended to improve her health. They stayed eight years. Impressed with the poverty, illiteracy and ignorance of the Madeirans, Kalley exercised Medicine gratuituously and decided to teach people to read and to write. He also started to preach, importing translated versions of the Bible in Portuguese from England. He founded a small hospital and seventeen elementary schools on the island which he personally financed.[3] The Catholic Church started to look with concern on these initiatives, since proselytising was forbidden by the PortugueseConstitutional Charter of 1826 and the Bishop ofFunchal forbade Kalley's religious lectures in 1841. In 1843, the Bibles he had distributed in Madeira were forbidden, like the meetings at his home. On 8 May 1845 he founded the firstPresbyterian Church of Portugal, in Funchal, ordaining presbyters and deacons, and celebrating the Lord's Supper for 61 Madeiran converts.
Since Protestantism wasn't allowed for Portuguese citizens, he faced charges ofblasphemy andheresy and all the schools he had founded were closed in 1846. Some converts had to face charges of heresy, then still punishable by the death penalty. Kalley sought refuge at the house of the BritishConsul and had to leave the island in 1846 in disguise, heading for the United States.[3] His followers were also obliged to leave the island and they took the only offer which was to become labourers inTrinidad.[4]
Kalley was in the BritishCrown Colony of Malta and laterBeirut in 1851 where his first wife died. He metSarah Poulton Wilson and married her inTorquay (England) on 14 December 1852.[5] Meanwhile, the Protestants who had been driven out of Madeira to work in Trinidad realised that they needed a better home. 150 moved to New York with funding from theAmerican Protestant Society. The Madeira refugees were eventually invited by the people ofJacksonville, Illinois (just west ofSpringfield) to make their home inIllinois. On 13 November 1849 they were met with a heartfelt welcome, and an area of the town became known as "Portuguese Hill". By 1853 there were about 1,000 Portuguese in Jacksonville.[4] In the year after their marriage, Kalley and his wife both visited the settlements in Jacksonville and neighboring Springfield.[5]
Kalley's biggest work, however, was inBrazil. Kalley arrived in Brazil in 1854, under the reign ofPedro II, and Catholicism was the country's official religion. The imperial constitution did not prohibit religious freedom, but it did prohibit any king of public religious worship other than those endorsed by Catholicism.
Despite not being the first foreign Protestant missionary on Brazilian soil, Kalley was the one who was the most fruitful there. InRio de Janeiro, he and Sarah founded theIgreja Evangélica Fluminense which is still today the oldest Portuguese speaking church in Brazil, and inPernambuco, the Igreja Evangélica Pernambucana[6] With his support, Sarah created hymnals in Portuguese. She valued singing as a method of spreading the word and she developed ladies' meetings at their new church.[5]
Despite his previous work as a Presbyterian, before coming to Brazil he became convinced of the Congregational values, so the first churches he founded were Congregational churches (like the I. E. Fluminense and I. E. Pernambucana) following the Scottish tradition of closed service. Later, after he developed and foundedCongregational churches with a few doctrinal variations (likeSPRINKLED BAPTISM FOR ADULTS ONLY) and adapted to the Brazilian culture, which was called locally asIgreja Evangelical. Crista Evangélica churches became one of the strongest denominations in Brazil until the early 1990s specially in the states of São Paulo (having its hub inSão José dos Campos) and Goiás (having its hub in Goiânia and Anápolis).
He often had arguments with the Catholic church and was for a while prohibited from preaching on Brazilian soil.[7]
Kalley became a close friend of Brazil's emperorPedro II, with whom he often argued against slavery and prohibition of public worship.
He left Brazil in July 1876 and retired to Edinburgh where his expertise was used as a director of theEdinburgh Medical Missionary Society who prioritised medical help as well as missionary zeal.
Kalley died at his home, Campo Verde, Tipperlinn Road in western Edinburgh on 17 February 1888. He was survived by his wife Sarah. Sarah continued their work and supported theHelp for Brazil charity.[5] He is buried with his family on the hidden southern terrace ofDean Cemetery in westernEdinburgh. The grave is flanked by plaques from his parishioners in Madeira and Brazil.
After protests by the Portuguese Governor and Roman Catholic archbishop of Madeira to the authorities in Lisbon, Kalley was charged with heresy and blasphemy in 1843 and eventually, after Protestant meetings had been broken up by mobs organized by the Roman Catholic clergy, forced to leave the island in 1846.
KALLEY, ROBERT REID, MD, born 8 September 1809, a teacher and pastor in Rio de Janeiro and in Pernambuco, Brazil, from 1855 to 1888, died 17 January 1888.
