There are known to have been a couple of converted Portuguese Jews at the St Petersburg Court of Tsar Peter the Great, including ‘court jester’ Yan d’Acosta (probably Joao d’Acosta) who had previously been a business broker in Hamburg. Another import was António Manuel de Vieira – Count Anton Manuilovich Devier (also spelled Divier and De Vier) – son of a Portuguese Jewish father from Holland and a Christian mother. He was brought to Russia by Peter, and baptised there, and became an administrator for Peter.
A Portuguese doctor, Antonio Nunes Ribeiro Sanches (1699, Portugal – 1748, Paris) practiced in St Petersburg from 1740 to 1747. He was the second senior doctor at Court treating the Empress Elizabeth and then Catherine II. He was an Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences.