In this paper a general theory of semi-classical d-orthogonal polynomials is developed. We define the semi-classical linear functionals by means of a distributional equation (phi U)=U, where phi and are dxd matrix polynomials. Several characterizations for these semi-classical functionals are given in terms of the corresponding d-orthogonal polynomials sequence. They involve a quasi-orthogonality property for their derivatives and some finite-type relations. (C) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim