Territories of the sacred: three centuries of diasporic experiences in the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Benedict of the Black Men of Florianópolis-SC

Abstract

In the present text we intend to reflect on experiences of the sacred in one of the oldest religious institutions of Santa Catarina, the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Benedict of the Black Men in Florianópolis (SC). In it, we emphasize how, in different historical epochs, brothers and sisters of the Rosary experienced the Brotherhood and its Church as a territory of the sacred. This work is the result of more than a decade of research on the aforementioned Brotherhood, since 2001, research for the thesis of Paulino Cardoso, entitled “Blacks in Desterro: the experiences of populations of African origin in Florianópolis” (2008) of the research project “Brotherhoods and Catholic Confraternities of Africans and Afro-Descendants in Desterro in the 19th Century” (2005), until the publication of Karla Leandro Rascke’s dissertation, in book form, entitled “Black Brotherhoods: Memories of the Diaspora in the South of Brazil” (2016). Between one and the other, an immense effort of transcription of documents of the collection of the Brotherhood, by the members of the Research Group “Multiculturalism: African and Afro-Latin American Studies” (CNPq) and that allowed to produce different works of conclusion of course, monographs of specialization, dissertations of master’s degree and doctoral thesis on the subject, bringing to the Brazilian and Brazilian historiography a new look at the black brotherhoods. In the reflections produced, the longevity of the religious institution, coupled with the power to relax in the face of the difficulties imposed by the different correlations of forces in time, without losing essential aspects to the group, such as solidarity with the underprivileged, dead and the incredible ability to place their devotees in the world.