Religiosity and its manifestations in the urban space of Salvador

Abstract

Brazil was discovered and occupied under the aegis of Christianity, reinforced by the movement of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Promoted by the Roman Catholic Church, opposed the Protestant Reformation, reaffirmed the use of images and dictated a series of rules to be followed by the faithful, expressed in the Constitutions of the First Archbishopric of Bahia, 1707. The Counter Reformation emphasized the importance of the public manifestations of faith, greater participation of the population in the things of the Church. The processions were a typical example of these manifestations, promoted especially by the Brotherhoods and/or Confraternities. In processions or public scenarios of faith, the Baroque images of holy figures and parties had a major role. Among them, we rescued a medieval use of puppets - plus the dramaticity taken from the opera house - transformed into roca and dressing mages. These consisted mainly in the eighteenth century, efficient tools to awaken the faith of lay and religious. The streets and squares - in the old historic center of Salvador - formed the big stage set, in which most of the processions passed. Stood out processions of the Mysteries of the Passion, Corpus Christi or related scenes, in fixed or variable dates, next to the proliferation of representations of the Holy Trinity, especially the cross or the Crucified Christ.