The religious orders and congregations are integral to Portuguese religious, social, cultural and political history. They are also part of a wider process in which Portugal remains an active part: the creation of European culture. Contrary to what could be expected, Portuguese scholarship and public debate have not paid due attention to the extremely relevant social and cultural role that the religious orders and congregations play and have played in the life of the country. As such, little has been made to understand the full implication of this important social fact. While various factors may have contributed to such neglect, the conflicted relationship between church and state for most of the nineteenth century and after the instauration of the Republic in 1910 certainly played a part. Additionally, the dissolution of the monasteries and the dispersion of their artistic, bibliographic and archival heritage, along with the confiscation of their assets and lands hampered the historiography of the orders, as its practitioners had (and sometimes still do) to handle a disorderly pile of poorly conditioned documents without the help of inventories. A weak historiography, informed by contemporary polemic and lacking heuristic support, did not go beyond a prejudice-laden and short-sighted perception of the roles played by the religious orders and congregations. The decision to hold a conference about religious orders in Portugal during the official commemorations of the first century of the Republic, aims at changing age-old neglect and at renewing the scholarly studies about these institutions in Portuguese history. Furthermore, the conference will emphasise one of the trademark implications of the First Republic, namely the new configuration of the relationship between church(es) and state. Lastly, this conference aims at stimulating the reflection on all issues surrounding the very history of the orders and congregations, both within the specific period of the First Republic and within the long, complex history of the orders’ presence in the country. Under the heading ‘Religious Orders in Portugal – memory, presence and diasporas’, this conference aims at the following: 1. Analysing the activity of the orders and congregations in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries, both in their ecclesiastical and religious dimensions as in their insertion in the local and global dynamics of the contemporary world. 2. Updating and deepening our knowledge of the long, hard and multifaceted experiences lived by the diverse religious congregations ever connected to the oscillations of Portuguese cultural and political history. 3. Contributing towards a more detailed knowledge of the social and cultural legacy of the religious orders and congregations to contemporary Portugal and Portuguese-speaking world, namely in proselytization, assistance, health, teaching, literature, music and other arts.