Frei Luís de Sousa is the religious name of Manuel de Sousa Coutinho (Santarém c. 1556 – Benfica 1632), a Portuguese who, in 1600, held the position of captain-major of Almada and is believed to have lived in "Bacelo," his property located in Pragal, Almorouche.

Son of a "great cultivator of letters and sciences," Lopo de Sousa Coutinho, Manuel de Sousa Coutinho married D. Madalena de Vilhena in 1583, the widow of D. João de Portugal, who died in the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir.

Captured by the Moors near Sardinia, he was taken as a slave to Algiers, where he met Miguel de Cervantes during his captivity. After being rescued, he went to Spain, where he became friends with Jaime Falcão, a poet and mathematician.

In 1613, he entered the convent of St. Dominic in Benfica, and his wife entered the convent of the Sacrament under the name Madalena das Chagas, after the death of their daughter, Ana de Noronha.

Almeida Garrett drew on the legend surrounding the hypothetical reappearance of D. João de Portugal, using it as the plot for his play *Frei Luís de Sousa*, the name that Manuel de Sousa Coutinho took as a member of the Order of St. Dominic.

His literary vocation manifested itself early on, but it is as a friar that his first work, *History of St. Dominic*, emerged, followed by *Life of Archbishop D. Frei Bartolomeu dos Mártires*, *Annals of King D. João III*, a Latin translation of *Life of Blessed Henry Suso*, *Life of Sister Margarida do Sacramento*, and other works that have been lost.

He is considered one of the greatest literary figures in Portugal.