The beginning of this monastery’s construction, the only feminine one of the Order of St. Jerome existing in Portugal, might have took place on 1^st August 1554, in the space designated by Rocio das Hortas da Fonte Coberta. The building allowed the expansion of the community of a pre-existing monastery that was established in the vicinity of Poço Novo (located at the intersection of the current Miguel Bombarda and António Isidoro de Sousa streets). This monastery was founded by D. Brites Dias Rodovalho.
The first document referring to Brites' determination to found a monastery dates from 30^th April 1548, although the intention to build it already existed, at least, since 1512. It was drafted in Lisbon, in the houses where Princess D. Isabel, daughter of D. Jaime (4^th Duke of Bragança) and wife of Prince D. Duarte (son of King Manuel I), with whom she would maintain close relations. The foundress then declared that she was single and without heirs, that she wished to spend the rest of her life in religion and that she had some houses in Viana, in the street of Poço Novo, where she had an oratory with the invocation of Jesus, establishing that this oratory, together with the mentioned houses, was to be instituted monastery of nuns. These houses came from a donation made by her parents and, presumably, also from the purchase of some other buildings. For the monastery’s foundation she also donated all her goods, furniture and cattle, rights and shares that belonged to her, to be spent on the construction and everything else that was necessary. Later she retired to these houses with other women, namely nieces and other relatives. At that time there would be 11 women gathered.
The permission to raise the altar, and to celebrate masses in it, and to raise a steeple was given by a Charter of Cardinal Infante D. Henrique, Archbishop of Évora, on 21^st February 1550.
On 15^th July 1553, a new foundation and donation deed made by Brites da Coluna (name for which Brites Dias Rodovalho became known in religion) and by other sisters was celebrated in Viana. We consider that the foundation of the house dates back to the year 1548, and that the document from 1553 confirms the already expressed intention of Brites, the founding of the monastery and the donation of her goods, being this donation now extended to other women who wanted to profess there.
By a provision issued on 14^th July 1553 by the Archbishop of Évora, Cardinal Infante D. Henrique, we know that the sisters of this religious house wanted to live according to the Constitutions and Statutes of the Order of St. Jerome, belonging to the Rules of the nuns, which were made in the Monastery of Lupiana of the Archbishopric of Toledo. Therefore, the cardinal accepted them under his prelate authority and orders the friar Luís de Baessa, of the said Order, to accept the obedience and subjection of the pious women. Thus, the oath of obedience to the Order’s Constitutions and to the bishop was made on the 21^st July 1553, on the Saint Gospels. The friar then gave them the Rule of St. Augustine and the Constitutions of the Order of Saint Jerome, and the religious women could profess, some still in 1553, others already in 1554, and others later professed over the following years. D. Brites da Coluna was the fourth to profess and became the Superior of the monastery.
However, the small dimension of the house, of the same invocation of the foundress' particular oratory, impossible to expand because it was located within the urban perimeter, and eventually the will to imitate St. Jerome in his estrangement from the world, led D. Brites da Coluna to determine the construction of a new monastery outside the village. The male monasteries of the Order of St. Jerome were preferably built on the coast, outside the population clusters, or in solitary places. However, in the female monastery of Bom Jesus’ case, it was implanted on the countryside and, although in the periphery of Viana, relatively near to the centre of the town.
Nevertheless, it was not easy to carry out this attempt since the owners allegedly did not want to sell the surrounding gardens and lands in order to build the new monastery. D. Brites might have had royal support and the land owners were obliged to let the lands go, which D. Brites bought at a higher price than the real value.
The first image that was put in the new monastery’s church will probably have been an Our Lady. The nuns arrived in 1560, after the death of Brites da Coluna, which occurred in 1555. The bones of the foundress were transferred to the new building, and they were possibly buried in the low choir, under the marble column that supports the high choir, an event that has no documental proof.
Princess D. Isabel herself gave a thurible made of silver and a pink satin cloth from her oratory to the new monastery, pieces that in the first half of the 17^th century still existed. At this time the monastery was still under construction, possessing great wealth due to the endowments that the arriving nuns brought and the incomes that it earned.
Somewhere in the thirties of the 17^th century (we believe) the community would have had 70 people, continuing the building to get more dowries. Túlio Espanca, however, affirms that the house was planned for 50 sisters, but it never had more than 44. According to Pinho Leal, around 1882 the monastery was very well maintained and the church was magnificent. This opinion is not shared by Túlio Espanca, who considered that, at the end of the 19^th century, the building would already be deteriorating, taking into account the low value of the property between 1858 (3,600,000 portuguese réis) and 1901 (4,000,000 portuguese réis), dates of the inventories and evaluations ordered by the State, following the process of extinction of the Religious Orders and nationalization of their assets, carried out after the implantation of Liberalism in Portugal, in 1820. As this was a female monastery, it was not compulsively shut down, waiting for the death of the last nun, so that it could be sold by public auction. Such only occurred in 1902 and only in that year could its valuable filling be auctioned to several individuals, after selecting some pieces for museums and libraries of the country.
Extremely vandalized and in an advanced state of ruin, the building shows different construction phases, being the oldest formed by the church, choirs (high and low) and cloister with two floors. The new dormitory and infirmary were completed already in the 18^th century. The belfry is on the main façade alongside the choirs. Crowned with a pinnacle pediment of Baroque style, it is surmounted by an iron weather vane, whose base could result from the reuse of the county’s old pillory’s finishing, during works of conservation made in the 19^th century. However, while suffering the terrible effects of humidity, some paintings on the ceilings of some rooms, especially in the refectory, are still visible.
 

REFERENCES
Biblioteca Pública de Évora, Mosteiro do Bom Jesus de Viana do Alentejo, Lv.1.
Biblioteca Pública de Évora, Mosteiro do Bom Jesus de Viana do Alentejo, Lv.60.
Biblioteca Pública de Évora, Mosteiro do Bom Jesus de Viana do Alentejo, mç 122.
Biblioteca Pública de Évora, Cód. CV/1-26 (“Memórias” do Mosteiro do Bom Jesus de Viana do Alentejo).
BAIÃO, Francisco, O Pelourinho de Viana do Alentejo: propostas para a sua reconstrução, 2003 (catálogo de exposição realizada no posto de turismo de Viana do Alentejo em Setembro de 2003) 
ESPANCA, Túlio, Inventário Artístico de Portugal: Distrito de Évora: Concelhos de Alandroal, Borba, Mourão, Portel, Redondo, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Viana do Alentejo e Vila Viçosa, Lisboa, Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes, 1978,Tomo IX, Vol. 1.
FARRICA, Fátima, No Espaço e no Tempo: Contributos para a História das Instituições de Viana do Alentejo (Séculos XIV-XX), Casal de Cambra, Caleidiscópio, 2015.