He was born in Penacova in 1866, he was always a good student in secondary school, at the Coimbra high-school. He studied Medicine in that city and got the highest marks. Ever since he was young, he distinguished himself by his eloquence and republican ideas; he even collaborated on some newspapers and magazines. While he was studying at the university, he was arrested for political reasons for the first time.
 
When António José de Almeida finished his degree, he couldn't teach at the university for political reasons. Therefore he decided to practise medicine on the island of S. Tomé, where he showed an unsurpassable  dedication to his patients. In that old colony, and later on in Lisbon, there many patients to whom he didn't charge any money; sometimes he offered them the medicines and even money. Still in S. Tomé, he founded the assistance association Pro Patria, which rendered excellent  services for several years.
 
At the age of 38, he came to live in Lisbon, and dedicated himself successfully to medicine (he was called the "doctor of the poor") and to political life, maintaining his eloquence in the republican demonstrations of that time. An active defender of free thinking, in 1906 he was elected to Parliament in Lisbon. In 1910, after the proclamation of the republic, he was chosen to be Minister of the Interior in the first Provisional Government, which was led by the philosopher and historian Teófilo Braga. He was one of the major dynamos of the wide legislative reform carried out then. After that he was minister and deputy several times.
 
António José de Almeida led the most moderate part of the republican party, which brought about the evolutionist party, opposing Afonso Costa's democratic party and Brito Camacho's unionist party. He created and directed the daily Républica (Republic) and the periodical Alma Nacional (National Soul).
 
In 1919, he accepted the candidacy of President of the Republic, and dissolved his party in order to be able to preside over the political life of his country with extreme righteousness. He was elected President and performed this role until 1923; he was the only president who carried out the whole mandate in the period of the first Republic. He  performed his tasks with a high criterion, and he was able to maintain his authority above the agitation of partisan passions; he was heard and respected.
In 1922, on the first centenary of Brazilian Independence, he went on a memorable trip to Brazil. He was the first supreme magistrate of a European nation  that had colonized America to visit a former domain, now emancipated, paying it homage and respect for its sovereignty and admiration for its progress. The speech he improvised then before the Brazilian Congress became famous; he said: "I have no doubt to tell you that I'm here, on behalf of Portugal, to thank Brazilians for favouring us with their independence at that moment."
 
He considered himself a free thinker, "outside of the society condoned by religion, but a deeply religious free thinker". He had a strong personality when he ended his physical existence in Lisbon — in the poverty he had driven himself to for having given everything he possessed to others —, he said: "I die Christian, but not Catholic".
 
António José de Almeida must have been an example on the Portuguese political scene: because he knew how to keep the motherland's interests above his own; because he resisted the temptations of economic and social well-being; because he rejected narcissism and tyranny; because he was dynamic and energized the projects he was involved with; because he could assume, independently, his own way of thinking, according to his strong personality.
 
How hard it must be for politicians, Portuguese or from any other nation, to bravely and vertically take on the defence of the State! To know how to be adored and rejected! To be able to escape mediocrity, many times without being understood!
 
Because we find it difficult to distinguish the normal politician from the gifted, we involve ourselves in little things, and easily lose sight of what is essential.
 
We know how complacent humanity has been with common leaders that have masqueraded as superior; and how unjust humanity has been with absolutely superior beings who have only been valued afterwards by History. 
 

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