Os santos e a peste no Brasil colonial (1685-1754)

The saints and the plague in colonial Brazil (1685-1754)

Authors

  • Edson Tadeu Pereira Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”

Abstract

Abstract: In 1685, the plague struck Pernambuco and later spread to other captaincies. High lethality encouraged clerics to write about; and this reinforced the presence of religious knowledge in the measures taken against the disease. Devotion to the saints has become central because it fits in with the situations of the epidemic. In sermons, devotional books, and hagiographies, holiness emerges as the intercessors of men's cause with God, so the colonists should choose a patron to protect the city or town. In these documents the religious recommend the practice of processions, prayers and novenas dedicated to the saints who had "lawyers against the plague". As the epidemic intensified, people fled both the plague and the sick except the religious. They rescued the sick because they sought an ideal of holy life after the example of the saints, they despised the world and lived and died for others, reason for the men of the church risking health with the sick. Given this scenario, this article aims, in general, to investigate the morality about plague in colony Brazil from 1685 to 1754, a period marked by major pestilence outbreaks, questioning the place of faith in the health and disease of the settlers.

Keywords: Plague. Devotion. Clergy. Saints. Moral. Processions.

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Author Biography

  • Edson Tadeu Pereira, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”

    Mestrando em História pela Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP); Bolsista FAPESP n° processo 2019/06043-0.  

Published

2019-12-06

How to Cite

Os santos e a peste no Brasil colonial (1685-1754): The saints and the plague in colonial Brazil (1685-1754). (2019). REVHIST - Revista De História Da UEG, 8(2), e821920. //www.revista.ueg.br/index.php/revistahistoria/article/view/9655