Edificar e instruir: missões jesuíticas nas cartas de Padre Raphael Maria Galanti na Woodstock Letters (1880-1910)

Abstract

Investigating the strategies that the Jesuits employed to amplify and give visibility to the jesuitic mission in Brazil in the period of 1880 to 1910, through the letters written by Father Raphael Maria Galanti and published in the Woodstock Letters magazine, is the goal of this research. The temporal profile of this study observes a period of transition between the Empire and the Republic, with significant changes in all sectors of society and especially in education, including the discussion about secular education. Following the path of a priest forgotten by his peers and his Order required peering into the omitted aspects of his biography. Wondering about such neglect, in turn, resulted in finding the Woodstock Letters magazine – edited since 1872 and which gathered religious people from across the world – and thus, interpreting how Father Galanti reflected about jesuitic education and the memory that the Ignatians built about themselves and the societies in which they lived and acted in seeking the edification of the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus, their memory in the civilizing process, and their education-oriented missions. For the construction of this research, scattered documents from archival institutions, many of them available in the web, such as the jesuitic archives spread around the world, particularly in their colleges: Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Archivum Britannicum Societatis Iesu: ABSI, Archivo España Compañía de Jesús (AESI), Biblioteca Privada dos Jesuítas, The Jesuit Archives and Research Center. In Brazil, the privileged sources were available in the Cúria dos Jesuítas, Colégio São Luís, Colégio Anchieta, Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Ceará e Biblioteca Nacional. The interpretation of the letters published in the magazine, which narrated the story of the first Ignatians in the country and the moment lived by Fr. Galanti and his companions, allowed reflecting on the actions of the Brazilian jesuitic mission, as well as situating the role of the Society of Jesus in our country’s education.