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St. Patrick in Brazil
(c) 2008 Peter O´Neill (org.)
Back in the 18th
Century the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, inspired two Portuguese Franciscan
Brothers to have a wooden statue, a town (São Patrício, pop. 1,840 in 2003), a
river and an extensive valley in the Brazilian State of Goiás all named in his
honour!
Prefeitura Municipal de São Patrício - GO, Praça Félix
Machado Parreira, nº 04 - São Patrício - GO - CEP: 76.343-000 T. (62)
3340-0066 F. (62) 3340-0066. Site oficial e foto: http://www.pmsaopatricio.com.br/index.php?exibir=fotos&cod_topico=1&topico=Fotos%20da%20Cidade&descricao= Criação do Município de São Patrício (lei): http://www.gabinetecivil.goias.gov.br/leis_ordinarias/1995/lei_12803.htm
St.
Patrick also had a church dedicated to him by Lancelot Belford (b. Dublin 1708
+ Maranhão SL 1775) on his estate known as “Kylrue” by the River Itapecurú in the state of Maranhão in
the North of Brazil. The church was
blessed on 12 December 1769. Lancelot
Belford became wealthy raising crops and
cattle. He was the first person to
introduce the silk worm to Maranhão and in 1756 he constructed a town house
known as Solar dos Berford near the
centre of São Luís that is still standing to this day.
The saint is
also honoured each year on his feast day, 17 March, in the Parish of São Patrício, São Paulo, where
parishioners led by the local parish priest carry a statue of the saint around
the parish in procession (Av.
Otacílio Tomanik 1555 -
Rio Pequeno, 0536-3101São Paulo SP. t.
005511 3768-3203).
St.
Patrick’s Day is commemorated in festive style each year by Brazilians and
Irish people alike at Irish style bars around the country such as The Irish Pub & Shenanigans´s - Rio
de Janeiro; All Black - Dublin
- Finnegan’s - O’Malley’s
- St. John´s - São
Paulo; Dunluce - São
José dos Campos SP; Sheridan´s & Sláinte -
Curitiba: Donovan - Florianópolis; Mulligan & Shamrock Irish Pub - Porto Alegre, and The Dubliners´ Irish Pub - Salvador BA.
O´Malley’s
bar usually organises a party with a traditional Irish band brought over from
Ireland especially for the occasion, ‘Murphy´s Law’. The Irish missionaries living in Rio, São
Paulo also have their own celebrations - organised by the St. Patrick’s
Missionary Society (Kiltegan Fathers) in São Paulo, and by Father John Cribbin
of the Oblates Fathers in Rio de Janeiro.
A
close look at an IBGE map of the southern part of Goiás State does indeed
reveal a small town called "São
Patrício". Ironically, a river
by the name of 'Rio Verde" or
Green River starts nearby. Close to the
town of Ceres, where a wooden image of St. Patrick is venerated to this day,
the river merges with another one that becomes "Rio das Almas", or River of Souls. Ceres itself is located in the "Vale de São Patrício", or St. Patrick's Valley. To the North, flows 'Rio de São Patrício", or St. Patrick's River.
According
to a local historian, Professor Zoroastro Artiago, the river received its name
around 1733. By about 1800 the entire
region was named after St. Patrick.
Professor Zoroastro wrote that in the first half of the 18th
Century two Portuguese Franciscan Brothers by the names of Brother João de
Jesus e Maria and Brother Domingos Santiago were active in the region. The Brothers were geographers and
topographers. Their main house was a
convent in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais.
Their residences in Goiás were located in Pirenópolis, in the
municipality of Pirenópolis, and Traíras, in the municipality of
Niquelândia. The residences were known
as ‘Peditórios’ or Alms House, a name that was associated with their official
work in Goiás, namely, to collect donations for the Holy Sea. As they travelled from place to place, “they
gave the name of St. Patrick to the river, and due to the river, the valley
received the same name”, according to Professor Artiago.
One
has to go back a little in history to find a possible explanation for this
devotion to St. Patrick on the part of the two Portuguese Franciscans. According to the Irish historian and
theologian, Father Lucas Wadding OFM (1588-1657), the feast of St. Patrick came
to be celebrated not only in Ireland, but also throughout the Universal
Church. The Portuguese Franciscans,
therefore, would have known about St. Patrick, since he appeared in their
Missal book. Could it have been that
they chose the name of the saint on account of the fact that there was a Jesuit
seminary in Portugal named after St. Patrick ?
At
the time England was enforcing its "Penal Laws" in Ireland. Candidates for the priesthood had therefore
to study outside the country. Portugal,
although it was the oldest ally of England at the time, received some of those
students. There is no doubt that the
presence of Irish students in Portugal had a great influence on the seminary
being named after St. Patrick. Whether
that in turn had any influence on the Portuguese Franciscans may never be
known. The fact, however, that the
river was named after an Irish saint, and not a Franciscan or Portuguese saint,
would tend to indicate that that indeed was the case.
The
statue of St. Patrick, which accompanied the Franciscans on their visits, still
exists to this day. It does not have
any inscriptions and its exact date is unknown. There are many legends about its origin. The most probable one is that the statue was
sculptured in Pilar a few years after St. Patrick's River received its
name. Other statues which were made in
Pilar can still be seen in the main church there. They all conform in style, material, form and condition with that
of St. Patrick's statue. The statue
remained in Pilar almost continuously from 1664 up to 1946. In 1946 Father Luiz Maria Oberarieta CFM, a
Spanish Claretinopriest, took it to a new villa of St. Patrick in Itapaci,
located on St. Patrick's River. Shortly
after the foundation of the new villa, the family that was entrusted with the
safe keeping of the statue, constructed a small chapel which they dedicated to
St. Patrick, and placed it on an alter in the centre of the chapel.
Although
no one doubts that the statue is a representation of St. Patrick, except for a
mitre, the Goian statue differs from the classic image of the saint. St. Patrick is represented as being very
young, without a beard, and his Episcopal robes are no longer in use. The statue does not have any shamrocks,
snakes or pastoral headpiece. The
statue, however, is considered to be a legitimate image of the saint,
considering its origins.
18.02.08