António Pereira Cândido de Figueiredo was born on 19 September 1846 in Lobão da Beira, Tondela, Portugal. He studied theology at the Seminário de Viseu (Viseu Seminary), and was ordained a Catholic priest on 19 June 1867. He then enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra, studying there between 1869 and 1874. During his studies in Coimbra, Figueiredo was active in the realist and naturalist student-led literary movement known as the .
