Church of São Mateus (Ribeirinha)

M. Lima claims to be unaware of the date of its foundation, although he adds that the parish was created in 1600 by Diogo Rixão and Beatriz Alvernaz, precisely at the time of the parish's creation.

It dates back to a primitive church, certainly smaller in size, about which nothing is known other than that it was very old, as it is mentioned in a document from 1568, which deals with the elevation of the congrues of the island of Faial. It was one of the temples looted and burned down in Horta, in August 1597, by Sir Walter Raleigh, of the fleet under the command of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and was rebuilt at the expense of the Royal Treasury.

The work was launched and the responsibility for it fell almost entirely on that owner. Meanwhile, a committee was organized to raise resources. On June 24, 1921, the first stone was laid, an act presided over by that priest, representing the governor of the diocese of Angra.