“Ide ao Brasil Imenso, ao Brasil Católico”: Evangelizar e Educar na Missão Barnabítica no Novo Mundo (1903-1908)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to interpret the Barnabite mission in Brazil, in order to make the work of the Barnabites in Brazil visible in the field of education history through travel studies. Through the documentation - letters, minutes, books of chronicles, reports - scattered and found in the various archives of the order - Belém, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Belgium - I seek to present the French social and political situation of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which led the religious to opt for Brazil as a place of mission. But first, due to the lack of academic work on the order, I first offer the reader some elements that will help to better understand the life and contexts in which these first missionaries/travelers were inserted. Then, through the documentation - letters, minutes, books of chronicles, reports - scattered and found in the various archives of the order - Belém, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Belgium - I try to present the French social and political situation of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which led the religious to choose Brazil as a place of mission. But first, due to the lack of academic work on the order, I first offer the reader some elements that will help to better understand the life and contexts in which these first missionaries/travelers were inserted. Then, through the logbooks, I analyze the course of the journey, which means interpreting the crossing, the arrival in Brazil and the impressions and denunciations made by the religious in their writings. Finally, I try to discuss and interpret the role of the religious in the formation of the clergy of Pará, as well as the power struggles that took place in the diocese of Belém. In order to better define the research, the time frame chosen is between 1901 (the year in which France created the Anti-Clerical Law, starting the persecution and culminating in the expulsion of religious orders) and 1908 (the year in which, after having done an excellent job at the Belém Seminary with the arrival of the new Archbishop of Pará, Dom Santino, the religious terminated their contract, putting an end to their work in the formation of the Belém clergy).