Teófilo Braga was born in the Azores, in Ponta Delgada, on 15 February 1843, son of Joaquim Manuel Fernandes Braga (likely a grandson of one of King D. João V's illegitimate children), from Braga, and Maria José da Câmara e Albuquerque, from the island of Santa Maria, was another descendant of Portuguese nobility (likely traced to Infanta D. Urraca, as the genealogist Ferreira Serpa has identified). Teófilo was, the 13th descendant of Diogo Gonçalves Travassos, father of D. Pedro and de Violente Velho Cabral, daughter of the Commander of Almourol, Gonçalo Velho, and descendant of Cristovão Falcão, a poet and Count of Avranches. His mother had seven children (Teófilo being the youngest), of which three died in infancy, the others: Luís, João Fernandes and Maria José. Teófilo's father became a widower when he was only three years old (his mother died at the age of 31 years). Originally, his father was an artillery lieutenant and commander in Mosteiros, and left the army after the Convention of Évora Monte, and without means, he opened a nautical school and mathematics in Ponta Delgada, eventually finding a position at the local secondary school in Ponta Delgada. Two years later, the older Braga wed a woman (Ricarda Joaquina Marfim Pereira) with a decidedly bad attitude to the young boy, fathering two daughters with Ricarda (Maria da Glória and Maria do Espírito Santo).

The child took refuge in literature, and specifically in the public library in Ponta Delgada or at the home of the Viscount of Praia, where his father (for a time) was a private tutor to the Viscount's daughters. It was in the Ribeira Grande newspaper A Estrela Oriental (English: The Oriental Star), edited by former pharmacist Francisco Maria Supico (a native of Lousã), that his first naive poem A Canção do Guerreiro (English: "A Song of the Warrior"), in a patriotic tone, dedicated to his brother João Fernandes Braga was published. He followed these with O Meteoro and O Santelmo. In 1859, in an edition paid for by the Viscount of Praia, he published a book of verses at 15 years of age, entitled Folhas Verdes (English: "Green Leaves") and edited by the newspaper A Ilha (English: The Island); it was a timid imitation of Folhas Caídas (English: Fallen Leaves), by noted author Almeida Garrett.

He revealed a tenacity and combative nature and was known to have been disciplined during his time at his secondary school in Ponta Delgada (where his father was teacher) for disparaging remarks made to his teacher. At the end of secondary school Teófilo looked to future prospects, going as far as informing his father of his intention to leave São Miguel and travel to America for a professional career (likely as a typographer or merchant). But his father suggested expanding his studies at the University of Coimbra, mindful of his child's lack of abilities in his preferred fields. Therefore, Teófilo Braga, student, arrived in Coimbra in April 1861, with hopes of achieving a doctorate in Theology or Law; after a year, in which he repeated his prerequisite entrance qualifications, he entered the Faculty of Law at the University. His first lodging would be at the home of Filipe de Quental (1824 – 1892), professor of Medicine and paternal uncle of Antero de Quental.

Life as a student was spartan and austere, and he distanced himself from the Bohemian lifestyle on campus, preferring to concentrate on his studies. A contemporary, the writer Ramalho Ortigão, had this to say of the young Teófilo:

"Simple, sober, hard, with habits of austerity bordering on spartan, he knows how to reduce his requirements as he lacks resources, living in his isolation like Robinson on his island, Teófilo Braga has a unique passion, a passion of a prelate of science. He does not publish a volume per week because there is no machine in Portugal that can accompany the rapidness of his pen. He writes with grace, disinterested, in the satisfaction of his supreme pleasure, pleasure of spilling ideas. This incredible force and at the same time his unique weakness; I've never met another. At his most acerbic nature, he has a passion of his ideas... in the 19th century, with his systematic activity and with his impatience guided by the profoundly pacifist philosophy of Augusto Comte, Teófilo Braga is the most perfect archetype of the uncredited worker and useful citizen. In the middle of Portuguese society... [we are] consoled by the power of contemplation, and a figure such as Teófilo Braga is a rare curiosity that we call... a human

While at Coimbra he jumped into the literary agitation; Teófilo joined his contemporaries, which included the writer Antero de Quental, in what became known as Questão Coimbra (English: Question Coimba), a loose affiliation of artists with non traditionalist philosophies and ideals around 1865. He remained on the periphery of this groups activities, though, while writing many of his recognized early works: O Pirilampo, O Fósforo and Tira - Teimas. A few of his professors in the Faculty of Law recognized his application, and arranged tasks that supported his studies, including the organization and classification of monastic documents. But it is clear that his new projects did not affect his participation in the student movement, against the autocratic Rector Basílio Alberto de Sousa Pinto and many of the traditionalists at Coimbra. He reserved his best efforts for his own projects; during this time he convinced editor Gomes Monteiro, of Casa Moré (a publishing house in Oporto), to publish his poem Visão dos Tempos (in 1864). It was a work that borrowed directly for its base the themes from Victor Hugo's La Légende des siècles, and captured in verse all the essential classicism of Judaism and Christianity. The work received many positive reviews. At the time the indisputable authority in literature was António Feliciano de Castilho and his Lisbon admirers, whom could make or break the reputation of young authors. Castilho, and his protégé Manuel Pinheiro Chagas were captivated by the classic prose of Visão (English: Vision) and congratulated in public Bragas' work.

But this was not repeated in his follow up book of poetry Tempestades Sonoras, which were preceded by a philosophical prologue that was both obscure and indecipherable. Generally, Castilho's conservative Lisbon supporters criticized severely many of the personalities with dissident tendencies, both from the artistic side, as well as from the political. At the time of the publication of Tempestades, Antero de Quental had just completed his Odes Modernas (English: Modern Odes), a shockingly militant work that challenged the conservative constitutional monarchy in Portugal, its class society and the religious hierarchy. Castilho and his prelates decided to begin a philosophical battle, without quarter, against the two iconoclasts, "that they considered exponents of a School at Coimbra of depraved tastes and highly harmful." The literary "conflict" began in earnest when Manuel Pinheiro Chagas published his obra prima Poema da Mocidade. António Feliciano de Castilho, in a letter to the editor António Maria Pereira, to promote the book and provide a prologue to the volume, critically attacked Antero Quental and Teófilo Braga, as well as their loose affiliation of friends. This was the beginning of the Questão Coimbrã Movement, an impassioned period that involved many Portuguese literary writers, that included many critical texts and apologies. Antero de Quental responded with his work which challenged Castilho's original text, which he entitled Bom Senso e Bom Gosto (English: Good Sense and Good Taste), followed by A Dignidade das Letras (English: A Dignity of Letters) and Literaturas Oficiais (English: Official Literature), while Teófilo challenged with his literary violent work As Teocracias Literárias (English: The Literary Theocracy). After his first year at the University, won by his tenacious inflexibility and idealism, Braga was confronted by the literary conflicts between traditionalists and modernists:

Quickly, I found myself encircled by hate; they cut-off my life in the newspaper; in Law classes, they took my academic distinctions; the critics devastated me rudely; the bookstore owners refused to publish what I wrote; and the patriarchs of Letters, with their authoritative weight smiles with sober equivalence at my intellectual value, circulating depressive stories about my character and customs, which served to dismantle my sacrifices. Another would have given up. I saw myself forced to reverse the base of my existence, abandon the Art that had seduced me, because it removed my contemplative serenity, and I launched myself into criticizing, into erudite knowledge, into science, into philosophy."

Rocha Martins referred to an interview that he had with Braga, in 1916, and where, as a visible admirer of the writer and president, he wrote of Teófilo's life and difficulties at Coimbra. Teófolio had recalled that one time, in Oporto, at the home of the librarian Moré he had crossed paths with Camilo Castelo Branco, who had extended his hand in friendship, but Braga had "turned his back". As Rocha Martins elaborated, Teófilo "was just a youth then... today he would not have turned his back on anyone... All men should learn to forgive". It was not just an attack on aesthetic differences between political ideologies, Castilho also supported his protégé (Chagas) for the chair in the department of Modern Literature in the Faculty of Letters, and used his letter to support and champion him for the position. The position was a "golden opportunity", and it was clear that both Teófilo and his friend Antero Quental were interested in the position.

In April 1868 Teófilo Braga married Maria do Carmo Xavier (Porto, 14 November 1841 – 14 September 1911), sister of Júlio de Matos, generally from a wealthy family (the couple would live at the Matos home for a time). Their life together would be tragic, marked by the premature deaths of their children: Joaquim, just after his birth (1869), Teófilo, at 13 (1886) and in March of the following year, Maria da Graça, at 16 (1887). Maria do Carmo, whose health was always fragile, was inconsolable (and by the time her husband held the Presidency her health was debilitated and passed away shortly afterwards). Camilo Castelo Branco a declared enemy of the writer, would be unusually forgiving, when Teófilo's children died within a short period of one another; at the time, Camilo would write the sonet A maior dor humana" (English: The Greatest Human Pain).

His political affiliations made it difficult to obtain a professorship at the Academia Politécnica do Porto (English: Polytechnic Academy of Oporto), as well as the Faculty of Law in Coimbra. Teófilo Braga had to wait a year, in 1872 (when he obtained his Law degree), in order to succeed in his application to a position as a full professor in Modern Literature, in a memorable public competition. He was the superior choice of the presiding judge of the committee, beating out his rival Manuel Pinheiro Chagas and Luciano Cordeiro, backed by semi - official patrons.

Teófilo aspired to be a systematic thinker; a theorist based on evidence which permitted a intrepid and dogmatic interpretation of Man, world and life. It was therefore, no surprise, that he accepted the tenants of Positivism. This positivist spirit would guide him between 1872 and 1877, under the influence of Joaquim Duarte Moreira de Sousa a professor of Mathematics in Castelo Branco, with whom he regularly had conversations. It was the teacher's curious spirit and following of Auguste Comte and Émile Littré that influenced Teófilo during this period. It was these influences that brought him to found, along with Júlio de Matos, the magazine O Positivismo in Oporto, between 1878 and 1882, to write Traços Gerais de Filosofia Positiva (English: General Ideas of Philosophical Positivism), 1877 and later Sistema de Sociologia (English: System of Sociology), 1884.

While still professor of Letters and research fellow, Teófilo Braga was studious and restless, yet he continued to give all his attention to his family (showering on them gifts from his poor remuneration). In his home on Travessa de Santa Gertrudes he lived a monastic lifestyle, usually broken by invitations from admirers or civic campaigns. But generally, he was able to concentrate on his writing, including his monumental História da Literatura Portuguesa (English: History of Portuguese Literature). With a vast repository of documents he would nurture interpretations of medieval romances and produce ultra - romantic works of realism. It was also during this time when he would show interests in ethnography, especially folklore: in 1867, História da Poesia Popular Portuguesa (English: History of Popular Portuguese Poetry), Cancioneiro Popular (English: Collection of Popular Poems) and Romanceiro Geral, and then later (1869) the book Cantos Populares do Arquipélago Açoreano' (English: Popular Stories of the Azorean Archipelago). He would repeat this style in 1883 Contos Tradicionais do Povo Português' (English: Traditional Stories of the Portuguese People) and in 1885, two volumes entitled O Povo Português (English Collection of Portuguese Romances), about costumes and traditions, but his studies were generally criticized during the period.

On some occasions he was considered a plagiarist; it is clear that Braga read profusely and was not too careful while editing his analyses, omitting citations and mentioning unreferenced ideas or the theories of others. The medic and politician Ricardo Jorge, did not hold back his exasperation in his book Contra um plágio do Prof. Theófilo Braga (English: Against a Plagiarized Work of Professor Teófilo Braga), in 1917:

Teófilo Braga, the venerated image of a diverse writer... remember the Indian idols, crowned with many heads... he is multi - headed. Each head, full of knowledge. Like the carrancas of a fountain, there erupts from each mouth a torrent of recorded science.

Even Antero de Quental who got along well with Teófilo referred to him as a hierophant of literary charlatanism. The Brazilian historian Sílvio Romero, called him Papa dos charlatães (English: Father of Charlatans). José Relvas, another contemporary, was another person who dismissed his contributions; he noted that the prestige he gained was not justified, and that only those who did not read his published works would admire him.

The political aspects of positivism, was a version of republicanism that acknowledged the stratification of classes within the capitalist model. Teófilo, while reading the works of Comte, fixated on the more radical rationalisms on Philosophical Positivism. On the philosophies of Auguste Comte, defending the ideas of positivism. "The positivist consolidated above all the idea that the Republic could not be just a coup d'etat, and that maybe, we should dispense with revolutionary intentions." The Republicans believed that "to create a Republic required a liberation of individuals of their older ideas... [that] without a doubt, it was [their] spiritual subjugation" In turn of the Century Portugal, about 50,000 individuals (in a population of less than six million) had declared themselves as non - Catholics. For Republicans, they believed that the population was captive to a Roman Catholic church that (in 1864) had condemned liberalism and all modern ideas. For the historian António Reis, Teófflo Braga's doctrinaire style was important in consolidating the Republican cause. His viceral Jacobinismo, allowed him to synthesize the theses of Republican Federalists; the themes of administrative decentralization, imperial mandates and limits which would allow the management of the Portuguese republican model of public education, on the combat of clerical ultramontanism, national sovereignty, and development of democratic ideals that would include universal suffrage. All these ideas would be elaborated in the newspapers A Vanguarda, O Século and O Rebate. The militancy of these works would serve as blueprints for many republicans of his time, guide their positions and administration. Between 1879 and 1881 he would write many of his more political ideas, including Soluções Positivas da Política Portuguesa (English: Postivist Solutions to Portuguese Politics), 1879, História das Ideias Republicanas em Portugal (English: A History of Republican Ideas in Portugal), 1880, and Dissolução do Sistema Monárquico - Representativo (English:Dissolution of the Monarchical - Representative System), 1881. These propaganda pieces did not mean an end to his other works; in addition to participating in numerous comedies, festivals, clubs and republican associations, he was one of the personalities, in partnership with Ramalho Ortigão, to coordinate the festivities to mark the third centenary of the death of Luís Vaz de Camões, the epic Portuguese writer, (10 June 1880). He would later become a partner in the Academia Real das Ciências (English: Royal Academy of Sciences), Lisbon, and the Academia Real de História (English: Royal Academy of History), Madrid, where he would be honored in subsequent years.

Braga became active in Portuguese politics in 1878, when he ran for deputy as an independent federalist republican. Over the years, he occupied many posts in the structure of the Portuguese Republican Party. He participated on the political barricades during the revolt in Oporto (31 January 1891), added to the list of members of the Republican Party and worked in partnership with Francisco Homem Cristo. The membership of the Republican Party in Lisbon never anticipated the success of the Republican revolt in the north. Teófilo and Homen Cristo attempted to include membership from the army in the movement, but were debilitated by a revolt that did not attract many of the upper echelons of the military and whose membership were generally seduced by the romantic image of the soldier. After the failure of the conspiracy, with many of those involved in retreat or sent to a military tribunal in Leixões, the two openly criticized Lisbon Republicans for their lack of support or solidarity with the members in Oporto. Teófilo occupied himself with arguing with the objectors and taking on an important role in the propaganda of the Republican Party. By 1896 he was a member of the Grupo Republicano de Estudos Socias (English: Republican Social Studies Group).

The political situation in Portugal had degraded after the 1890 British Ultimatum. Further, between the 19th Century and 20th Century, the system of power that rotated between the parties was slowly desmantled; the divisions introduced by João Franco and José Maria de Alpoim resulted in the creation of splinter groups along side the two historical constitutional parties (respectively, the Partido Regenerador Liberal alongside the Partido Regenerador and the Dissideência Progressista from the Partido Progressista), which would alter the rules of political coexistence. A dictatorship created by João Franco after May 1907 (supported by King D. Carlos) was a episode of cumulative crises provoked by Hintze Ribeiro, leader of the Partido Regenerador, and José Luciano de Castro, responsible for the Partido Progressista. Teófilo Braga accompanied many of these events, as well as the French dictatorship, the regicide and enthronement of King D. Manuel II, of which the journalist João Chagas wrote: ...[Manuel II assumed the military regalia] when by now it was not needed. The republican cause had grown in importance, nurtured by the Republican Party, members of freemasonry, the Carbonária Portuguesa and by numerous groups of doctrinarian idealists influenced by the cause.

On 1 January 1910, he became an effective member of the Political Directorate of the party, joining Basílio Teles, Eusébio Leão, José Cupertino Ribeiro, and José Relvas. On 28 August 1910, he was elected deputy for Lisbon. The change in the system of government, the revolution, began on the morning of 4 October 1910 and lasted until the following day. Teófilo Braga received the confidance of the movement to occupy the position of President of Provisional Government of the Portuguese Republic. But the old Republican Party would not survive the creation of the Republic; factions quickly developed between groups within the unitary party to form new organizations: Afonso Costa's faction would form the Partido Democrático (the most populist, Jacobin and urban party), António José de Almeida founded the Partido Evolucionista (a contemporary faction that included the rural bourgeoisie) and Brito Camacho created the União Republicana (which was an intellectual group with many of its members from Lisbon). The first conflict involved the electoral act: Afonso Costa's "democrats" wanted Bernardino Machado to be the first President of the Republic, but António José de Almeida and Brito Camacho factions were able to elect Manuel de Arriaga in that title. Teófilo Braga, who was always more closely affiliated with the membership of the "Democrats" and owing to small problems with Arriaga, sided with Bernardino Machado.

He would return to government in May 1915; he became the President of the Republic after the abrupt resignation of Manuel de Arriaga. Arriaga had supported Pimenta de Castro to run the government, and the General had established a dictatorship, which was eventually defeated. In disgrace the pacifist first President vacated the position, and the membership of the assembly had elected Braga to the position.

Braga was an extremely austere man; after becoming a widower, he was a recluse and occupied a lot of his time in his library. Even as President, he would walk, umbrella or cane in hand, everywhere, and generally, his Presidency itself was not an exercise in ostentatious living. Over time, as a man of letters, Teófilo Braga was recognized by historians as an erudite author. His final home, was on the second floor of 70 Rua de Santa Gertrudes à Estrela, in Lisbon, and usually accompanied his neighbor for breakfast or lunch. He wore over used clothing, of which many he repaired personally, including white linens which were his departed wife's possessions (and reminded him of their earlier life together). His was a solitary figure, and had lost many of his closest relations (his mother died early in his life, his father died in the Azores, he lost his children in their infancies and his beloved wife died before him), as well as his sight.

In his last will, he expressed his desire to be interred in a civil service, without ceremony. He died at 81 years of age, on January 28, 1924, but was buried in the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, Lisbon.

As for his literary career, one can find books by Braga on the history of literature, on ethnography (mainly his search for popular stories and traditional songs), poetry, fiction, and philosophy. Braga's body of published work is also connected to historical investigation; while balancing philosophy, linguistics and culture he wrote História da Poesia Popular Portuguesa (English: The History of Popular Portuguese Poetry), História do Teatro Português (English: History of the Portuguese Theatre) and História das Ideias Republicanas em Portugal (English: The History of Republican Ideals in Portugal). One of his most contentious, from a scientific point of view, was História do Romantismo em Portugal (English: The History of Romanticism in Portugal), in 1880, although his four volume História da Universidade de Coimbra (English: History of the University of Coimbra) is still considered important.