Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Three Centuries of Missionary Work in Northern Brazil: Franciscan Province of St. Anthony, 1657-1957

1958; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/979548

1533-6247

Venâncio Willeke,

Religion and Society in Latin America

In the words of the Brazilian historian, “Brazil was born Franciscan,” since it was a Franciscan, Frei Henrique Soares de Coimbra, and his confreres, who said the first Holy Mass on Brazilian soil in 1500. After that, in 1516, two anonymous Franciscans were massacred by the Indians near Porto Seguro. Various groups of Franciscans in Brazil are mentioned during the rest of the sixteenth century, until, in 1584, Fr. Francisco Gonzaga, while visiting Portugal in his capacity as Minister General, and presiding at the provincial chapter of the Franciscan Province of St. Anthony in Portugal, decreed the founding of the custody, or minor-province, of St. Anthony in Brazil. He did this over the objections of some of the friars assisting at the chapter, who thought their numbers too small to think of founding a new mission.