The humanism of father Antônio Vieira

Abstract

The profound humanist and man of action that was Vieira, could not remain indifferent to the brutality with which the Indians and black slaves were treated in Brazil. A practice, moreover, consented to throughout the colonizing Europe. The missionary saw everything and denounced everything in the Portuguese court. What he asked for was dignity and tolerance for the subjugated peoples. Aware of reality, the Christian humanist went through practically the entire seventeenth century, attentive to political, economic, social and religious problems, with reformist proposals that were advanced for the mentality of the time. Such as the defense of the human rights of the Indians or the end of the discrimination that existed between New Christians and Old Christians. In his prophetic work to Clavis Prophetarum, Vieira exposes his dreams of reconciliation between Jews and Christians. According to (COUTO, 2009, p. 99), three sermons from the series of 30 are dedicated exclusively to black slavery: 14th, 20th, 27th. These three sermons were preached directly to the blacks of the Irmandade do Rosário dos Pretos. Vieira spent most of 1653 in São Luís, where he defended the freedom of the Indians in his sermon on the First Sunday of Lent (or on Tentações).