Mosteiro is the smallest civil parish in the municipality of Lajes das Flores on the Portuguese island of Flores, in the archipelago of the Azores. The population in 2021 was 19, in an area of . History Its toponymy has been debated by historians, although some theories suggest that it was named for the comparable civil parish on the island of São Miguel. The first colonists, motivated to settle here by a man named João Soares, were settlers from the region of Mosteiros, renaming this zone in its honour. In 1676, the locality of Mosteiro was de-annexed from the parish of Lajes das Flores and included in the ecclesiastical parish of the Fajãs, with its seat in the parish of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios da Fajanzinha. The adventurer António de Freitas, former seminarian, had emigrated to China, where he made his fortune. Returning from his life in the Far East in 1846, he ordered the construction of the Parochial Church of Mosteiro, in the invocation of the Holy Trinity, in gratitude for God's intervention in saving his possessions during the trip. In 1850, Mosteiro was elevated to parish, along with Caldeira, on the completion of the parochial church. As related by Francisco Gomes, "at the time of the erection of the parish it was decently ornamented, and provided with vestments, and other objects necessary for the Divine Cult". During this period, the parish included 90 homes, including 300 inhabitants. As Father José António Camões, wrote after describing the bridge of Sargo, he also referred to the small port of Mosteiro "where tragically three or four boats capsized...the small port is part of a small community called "Os Mosteiros", and indicate the existence of two streams, the "Ribeira do Mosteiro" and "Ribeira dos Ladrões" (or Fundão) that ends the district of the parish of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios and Nossa Senhora do Rosário of Lajes". The same historian referred to a population of 31 homes, including 83 men and 92 women, noting: "There are eight tiled houses, and not a man who wears shoes. There is a twenty-year judge with scribe, subject to the jurisdiction of the town of Lajes. The ordinance soldiers of the village are subordinate to the 2nd company in the villa of Lajes." During the 18th century, with the lack of development and investments, many of the residents from the parish abandoned the parish for prosperous centres