Maria Vieira's intervention in the earthly world and in the Beyond, as a married woman and widow, points to an enormous investment, both real and symbolic. This woman lived mostly during the first half of the 1600s in the city of Braga and it was there that she, together with her husband, carried out substantial social mobility, becoming very rich and powerful. The accumulated wealth allowed them to make many investments in relevant sectors such as social, welfare and religious. In this investment path, traces of her daily life were known, marked by her devotions and affections and particularly by her life choices, taken as a couple or alone, but assisted by her family priests. Illiterate but very intelligent and insightful, Maria drew up a set of decisions and projects, demonstrating her investment and leadership skills, in a period when women had to live modestly and be submissive. This study aims in the first place to make known the accumulation of wealth that surrounded her and in the second place to analyse her performance in material and spiritual terms. The sources analysed can be found in various archives in Braga, both public and private, and their cross-referencing has made it possible to follow Maria Vieira's life path and to make known her process of social mobility and enrichment, going from a merchant's daughter to a woman of the elite. As a result of this path, we meet a very prestigious and powerful woman, who acquired a tremendous power in her family, but also in the city. Her ventures indicate that she was a very dynamic person, in a society marked by Counter-Reformation.
