Miracles in Brazil (16th to 18th centuries)

Author(s)

Lucas de Almeida Semeão

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Franca. 2020-05-29.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais. Franca
• Defense date: 2020-05-12
• Advisor: Jean Marcel Carvalho França

Abstract

The belief in miraculous events was very common among the people of colonial Brazil. One of the central actors of this practice was the intercessors, who acted as a kind of "bridge" between God and the faithful, questioning the first in the name of the second. The proof of the expressiveness of this belief is the number of times miraculous events were cited in the various Portuguese-language writings produced during the colonial period, indicating that the miraculous event was a common part of the daily life of various settlers. Many of the miracle middlemen were saints already known in the Christian world; however, from the the sixteenth century onwards, but more significantly in the early seventeenth century, the martyrs and distinguished men of the colonization process began to appear in the narratives as the performers of miraculous portents. Such a presence grew notably throughout the century, but at the turn of the Six Hundred to the Seven Hundred, there was a new change: the gradual diminution of miraculous narratives with mention of martyrs and men of distinction of miracle workers. The purpose of this research is to understand these variations, through some questions posed to the documentation of the time (16th, 17th and 18th centuries): what belief in miracles represented in the daily lives of people in a markedly religious era, such as the colonial period of the Brazil? What was the meaning of miracle? Through whom and by what means about the miracles disseminated in colonial society? Who performed the miracles? Who received them? Were there privileged places and moments of miraculous occurrences? What were the main types of miracles? And, finally, who interceded - when there were intercessors - these miraculous deeds? (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/16380-0 - The belief in miraculous facts in Brazil (17th and 18th centuries)
• Grantee: Lucas de Almeida Semeão
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master