[4] Pope Francis approved the equipollent canonization for him on 5 July 2019 after waiving the miracle needed for him to become a saint therefore acknowledging him as such.

During the course of teaching theological studies at the Batalha convent he was summoned to Évora at the request of Luis of Portugal, Duke of Beja to undertake the religious education of his son who was entering the ecclesiastical life himself; he dedicated time to this great task.

In 1558 - against his own desires - and out of obedience to his provincial superior (Louis of Granada) he accepted the appointment to the archepiscopal see of Braga for which Queen Catherine had chosen him for and in 1559 received his episcopal consecration at the convent of Saint Dominic on 3 September 1559 from the Bishop of Coimbra João Soares.

[2] The conclusion of that council saw him return to Braga in February 1564 and in 1566 he held an important provincial gathering of the diocese in which decrees were passed for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline and the elevation of the moral life of priests and people ("Concilium provinciale Bracarense quartum" in 1567).

The archbishop now devoted himself to the task of enacting the reforms of the Council of Trent in addition to the decrees of his own provincial synod.

A great famine and a visitation of the plague revealed the depths of his charitable and merciful nature in addition to his willingness to aid his flock in their time of need; he also constructed a series of hospitals and hospices.

In the interests of Christian life and the promotion of ecclesiastical discipline he wrote the following publications: All of these writings have been republished on numerous occasions and have also been translated into several languages.

The late archbishop was declared to have lived a model Christian life of heroic virtue in a move that allowed for Pope Gregory XVI to title Fernandes as Venerable on 23 May 1845.

The pope approved the late archbishop's equipollent canonization in a decree issued on 5 July 2019 therefore naming him as a saint.