Role of the Catholic Church in Construction of Cape Verdean Society
- Religion
In the 15th Century the kingdom of Portugal was not just interested in economic and imperial considerations, but it also had a religious mission conferred by the papacy, which had strong authority and influence over the temporal powers in the Christian world of the time. Afonso V of Portugal was granted possession of the territories being discovered in Africa by Nicholas V in 1455 and Callisto III in 1456. They also granted the Portuguese the monopoly on commerce in the region and put the Infante D. Henrique, Prior-Major of the Ordem de Cristo (Order of Christ), in charge of assisting believers in carracks and caravels, as well as those settled on the land. He was also to convert unbelievers, found monasteries and other places of worship, and to stop the advance of muslims in the foreign territories, in a set of measures that was known as the padroado régio português (royal Portuguese patronage).
It was in this context that in 1466 the two Capuchin monks, Friar Rogerio and Friar Jaime found a church already constructed, indicating that clerics from the Ordem de Cristo had preceded them since 1462, the time when the parish of Ribeira Grande was constituted. In 1473, the vicar of Tomar sent the Dominican, Friar Tomas, as Archpriest of Alcatrazes.
In the 60 years that followed, the church accompanied the establishment of the settlements in Santiago and Fogo, and built temples for worship. Cape Verde became dependent on the Diocese of Funchal in 1514, when it was created by D. Manuel I, until 1533, when Ribeira Grande became a city, and its own diocese was created under the name of Santiago. D. Brás Neto was named the first Bishop of Cape Verde, and his jurisdiction also extended to the populations of Guinea, the River Gambia and “Cabo das Palmas” (the current Ivory Coast). Francisco da Cruz (1551 to 1574), the third Bishop of Santiago, marked the high point of the vitality of the diocese. In this period there was intensity of religious feeling, illustrated by the erection of many religious buildings, as was described. Highlights include the Cathedral (despite the fact that it took a century and a half to be constructed), the church and the Casa da Misericórdia, and the Episcopal Mansion. From 1570 ecclesiastical appointments were made locally and by candidacy, which meant that an increasing number of posts were occupied by local clergy.
As well as being the principal parish of Cape Verde at that time, Ribeira Grande was home to the Holy See, which functioned in the Igreja da Misericórdia and had a complex organisation overseen by theBishop, attended by theCanon,and including the dean, a preacher, treasurer, archdeacon, choirmaster, schoolmasterm,2 canons, and also a rector, curate, sacristan, 4 chaplains, sub-treasurer, 4 choirboys, altar boy, preacher, organist, chapel master, scribe and tax collector. TheMisericórdia, with its works, orphans, chapels, hospitals, brotherhoods, leprosaria, hostels, residences, church, infirmaries and “botica” (pharmacy), was an extension of the ecclesiastical organisation, and in theconfrarias (brotherhoods) the entire population, considered 100% Catholic, congregated, including the slaves. At this stage, it could still be said paradoxically that the society of Ribeira Grande was based on slavery (with 5,700 urban, actively Catholic slaves). In 1606 there were no less than 54 church officials in Cape Verde, of which 45 were urban, in Ribeira Grande, Praia and S. Filipe, and 9 were rural vicars.
In 1582 the church already covered the main areas of the archipelago, with two large parishes in Santiago (Ribeira Grande and N. Sra. Da Graça da Praia) and eight smaller ones, known as “de fora” (external) (S. Nicolau Tolentino da Ribeira de S. Domingos, S. Tiago da Ribeira Seca, Santo Amaro do Tarrafal, S. João da Ribeira de Santo António, Santa Catarina do Mato, S. Miguel da Ribeira dos Flamengos, S. Jorge dos Órgãos and N. Sra. Da Luz de Alcatrazes), as well as two on Fogo (S. Filipe and S. Lourenço dos Picos). Each of these had at least one priest, who held mass every day. There is also a record of a permanent vicar in Santo Antão since 1575, and there were churches in S. Nicolau, Boa Vista and Maio, which were the communities more sporadically visited by men of religion, who administered the sacraments.
In June 1604 a mission of Jesuits arrived at Ribeira Grande. They were reinforced in 1607, and in 1610 they already had a functioning school as clear proof of the mission to teach that always accompanied the church, and explains how education developed in Cape Verde, making an early appearance in Cape Verdean society.
While the Holy See was being created by the Congregation for the Propogation of the Faith in Rome in 1623, missionaries from other nationalities started to arrive, particularly Capuchin monks and Franciscans, although unfortunately the Jesuits abandoned their presence on the archipelago in 1642. However they did not leave without changing the unprepared state of the local clergy, which they had criticised on their arrival, to such an extent that when Father António Vieira stayed a while in Cape Verde in 1652 on the way to Brazil, he realised that there was an active and competent local clergy: “there are some clerics and canons here who are as black as tar; but so well prepared, so authoritative, so erudite, such great musicians, so discreet and well tempered, that they could be the envy of those that we see in our cathedrals”.
According to the Jesuits themselves who catechised the islands of Santiago and Fogo, and the inhabitants furthest inland, in the first half of the 17th Century, “… the free blacks, living inland on the islands, although they are generally labourers and quite industrious, are commonly termed “lazy”, a name that they certainly do not deserve from the indolent bourgeois citizens or villagers of the sea ports (…) they have a gentle character, are mild in their customs, patriarchal in their hospitality”.
After the Restoration in Portugal, under the reign of D. João IV, the diocese of Cape Verde entered a very difficult period, which also coincided with the deterioration of the entire civil system on the archipelago. The Canon became embroiled in intrigues, in promiscuity with civil power, which culminated in the assassination of Dean and General Vicar, Manuel Dinis Ribeiro. From 1676 the bishops that arrived at Ribeira Grande were Franciscans, and they developed religious action based on agreement with the community of Franciscan priests that occupied the parishes, particularly Victorino Portuense, who finished work on the Cathedral and the Mansion and moved in. He also built various churches (Santiago Maior, S. Lourenço dos Picos, Santa Catarina do Mato and S. Salvador do Mundo), and even had time to visit Guinea for 3 years (1694-1697). Francisco de Santo Agostinho, who succeeded him (1709-1719) was obliged to go to live in Trindade, as he was concerned to safeguard a minimum of independence for episcopal authority in the face of the civil and ecclesiastical potentates in the capital during an era of tumult, revolts and robbery, which led to the existence of private and rival militias.
Until 1754, when a new cycle started with Pedro Jacinto Valente, of the Ordem de Cristo, the famous and omnipotent captain-major, António Barros Bezerra de Oliveira, dominated Ribeira Grande. On reaching Santiago, he was informed of the excesses of this despot, and he left for the islands, purportedly for a pastoral visit. In the end he transferred the seat of the diocese from Santo Antão to Ribeira Grande, while his successors preferred S. Nicolau, where the seat of the diocese was finally transferred by José Luís Alves Feijó. The dream of all bishops of Cape Verde was eventually finalised in 1866, when a seminary was opened to provide suitable teaching for the Cape Verdean clergy. However, whatever became of it, in 1957 in Ponta Temerosa, in Praia, they contributed more to the training of erudite elites in Cape Verdean society than for the ordination of ministers of the church.
In the 20th Century (1941) the priests of the Congreation of the Holy Spirit (Portuguese, Swiss and later Cape Verdean) arrived in Santiago and Maio. This was a highly dynamic religious congregation of French origin, overseen by Bishop Faustino Moreira dos Santos (1941-1955), who was also from Espírito Santo. Like the Capuchin monks on other islands and a group of priests from Goa (including a bishop – José Colaço, 1956-75), they carried out religious work that reflected the modernisation that the Catholic church had undergone, particularly from the council Vatican II (in the 1960’s) onwards. On the other hand, this in turn triggered the appearance of a faction of “rabelados” (“rebels” in the area of Calheta and Tarrafal), who went against the renewal of rites and the adoption of rituals that were easier for believers to understand.
At the same time as they developed intense pastoral work, in which the bulk of the population was involved, as they were keen to return to authentic religious practices which had shaped their culture for centuries, the church relaunched the seminary, now in Ponta Temerosa (1957). Working with successive local governments that were determined to spread education to the entire population, they developed an important schooling program (for children and adults), which was notable particularly in the period when the Head of the Congregation in Cape Verde was José Maria de Sousa (1963-1974).
The first Cape Verdean bishop emerged from the priests of Espírito Santo, Paulino Évora (1975-2009). Another Cape Verdean, Arlindo Furtado, took over the second diocese in the country in 2003, which was then created in Mindelo, thus dividing the country into the diocese of Sotavento and Barlavento. Following the resignation of Don Paulino Évora in 2009, Don Arlindo Furtado took over the diocese of Praia, at a stage when a high proportion of the priests in Cape Verde were natives, trained in the seminary of S. José. Once more, as in S. Nicolau in the 19th Century, a large number of citizens emerged from the seminary to form the elite of civil society.
In the 15th Century the kingdom of Portugal was not just interested in economic and imperial considerations, but it also had a religious mission conferred by the papacy, which had strong authority and influence over the temporal powers in the Christian world of the time. Afonso V of Portugal was granted possession of the territories being discovered in Africa by Nicholas V in 1455 and Callisto III in 1456. They also granted the Portuguese the monopoly on commerce in the region and put the Infante D. Henrique, Prior-Major of the Ordem de Cristo (Order of Christ), in charge of assisting believers in carracks and caravels, as well as those settled on the land. He was also to convert unbelievers, found monasteries and other places of worship, and to stop the advance of muslims in the foreign territories, in a set of measures that was known as the padroado régio português (royal Portuguese patronage).
It was in this context that in 1466 the two Capuchin monks, Friar Rogerio and Friar Jaime found a church already constructed, indicating that clerics from the Ordem de Cristo had preceded them since 1462, the time when the parish of Ribeira Grande was constituted. In 1473, the vicar of Tomar sent the Dominican, Friar Tomas, as Archpriest of Alcatrazes.
In the 60 years that followed, the church accompanied the establishment of the settlements in Santiago and Fogo, and built temples for worship. Cape Verde became dependent on the Diocese of Funchal in 1514, when it was created by D. Manuel I, until 1533, when Ribeira Grande became a city, and its own diocese was created under the name of Santiago. D. Brás Neto was named the first Bishop of Cape Verde, and his jurisdiction also extended to the populations of Guinea, the River Gambia and “Cabo das Palmas” (the current Ivory Coast). Francisco da Cruz (1551 to 1574), the third Bishop of Santiago, marked the high point of the vitality of the diocese. In this period there was intensity of religious feeling, illustrated by the erection of many religious buildings, as was described. Highlights include the Cathedral (despite the fact that it took a century and a half to be constructed), the church and the Casa da Misericórdia, and the Episcopal Mansion. From 1570 ecclesiastical appointments were made locally and by candidacy, which meant that an increasing number of posts were occupied by local clergy.
As well as being the principal parish of Cape Verde at that time, Ribeira Grande was home to the Holy See, which functioned in the Igreja da Misericórdia and had a complex organisation overseen by theBishop, attended by theCanon,and including the dean, a preacher, treasurer, archdeacon, choirmaster, schoolmasterm,2 canons, and also a rector, curate, sacristan, 4 chaplains, sub-treasurer, 4 choirboys, altar boy, preacher, organist, chapel master, scribe and tax collector. TheMisericórdia, with its works, orphans, chapels, hospitals, brotherhoods, leprosaria, hostels, residences, church, infirmaries and “botica” (pharmacy), was an extension of the ecclesiastical organisation, and in theconfrarias (brotherhoods) the entire population, considered 100% Catholic, congregated, including the slaves. At this stage, it could still be said paradoxically that the society of Ribeira Grande was based on slavery (with 5,700 urban, actively Catholic slaves). In 1606 there were no less than 54 church officials in Cape Verde, of which 45 were urban, in Ribeira Grande, Praia and S. Filipe, and 9 were rural vicars.
In 1582 the church already covered the main areas of the archipelago, with two large parishes in Santiago (Ribeira Grande and N. Sra. Da Graça da Praia) and eight smaller ones, known as “de fora” (external) (S. Nicolau Tolentino da Ribeira de S. Domingos, S. Tiago da Ribeira Seca, Santo Amaro do Tarrafal, S. João da Ribeira de Santo António, Santa Catarina do Mato, S. Miguel da Ribeira dos Flamengos, S. Jorge dos Órgãos and N. Sra. Da Luz de Alcatrazes), as well as two on Fogo (S. Filipe and S. Lourenço dos Picos). Each of these had at least one priest, who held mass every day. There is also a record of a permanent vicar in Santo Antão since 1575, and there were churches in S. Nicolau, Boa Vista and Maio, which were the communities more sporadically visited by men of religion, who administered the sacraments.
In June 1604 a mission of Jesuits arrived at Ribeira Grande. They were reinforced in 1607, and in 1610 they already had a functioning school as clear proof of the mission to teach that always accompanied the church, and explains how education developed in Cape Verde, making an early appearance in Cape Verdean society.
While the Holy See was being created by the Congregation for the Propogation of the Faith in Rome in 1623, missionaries from other nationalities started to arrive, particularly Capuchin monks and Franciscans, although unfortunately the Jesuits abandoned their presence on the archipelago in 1642. However they did not leave without changing the unprepared state of the local clergy, which they had criticised on their arrival, to such an extent that when Father António Vieira stayed a while in Cape Verde in 1652 on the way to Brazil, he realised that there was an active and competent local clergy: “there are some clerics and canons here who are as black as tar; but so well prepared, so authoritative, so erudite, such great musicians, so discreet and well tempered, that they could be the envy of those that we see in our cathedrals”.
According to the Jesuits themselves who catechised the islands of Santiago and Fogo, and the inhabitants furthest inland, in the first half of the 17th Century, “… the free blacks, living inland on the islands, although they are generally labourers and quite industrious, are commonly termed “lazy”, a name that they certainly do not deserve from the indolent bourgeois citizens or villagers of the sea ports (…) they have a gentle character, are mild in their customs, patriarchal in their hospitality”.
After the Restoration in Portugal, under the reign of D. João IV, the diocese of Cape Verde entered a very difficult period, which also coincided with the deterioration of the entire civil system on the archipelago. The Canon became embroiled in intrigues, in promiscuity with civil power, which culminated in the assassination of Dean and General Vicar, Manuel Dinis Ribeiro. From 1676 the bishops that arrived at Ribeira Grande were Franciscans, and they developed religious action based on agreement with the community of Franciscan priests that occupied the parishes, particularly Victorino Portuense, who finished work on the Cathedral and the Mansion and moved in. He also built various churches (Santiago Maior, S. Lourenço dos Picos, Santa Catarina do Mato and S. Salvador do Mundo), and even had time to visit Guinea for 3 years (1694-1697). Francisco de Santo Agostinho, who succeeded him (1709-1719) was obliged to go to live in Trindade, as he was concerned to safeguard a minimum of independence for episcopal authority in the face of the civil and ecclesiastical potentates in the capital during an era of tumult, revolts and robbery, which led to the existence of private and rival militias.
Until 1754, when a new cycle started with Pedro Jacinto Valente, of the Ordem de Cristo, the famous and omnipotent captain-major, António Barros Bezerra de Oliveira, dominated Ribeira Grande. On reaching Santiago, he was informed of the excesses of this despot, and he left for the islands, purportedly for a pastoral visit. In the end he transferred the seat of the diocese from Santo Antão to Ribeira Grande, while his successors preferred S. Nicolau, where the seat of the diocese was finally transferred by José Luís Alves Feijó. The dream of all bishops of Cape Verde was eventually finalised in 1866, when a seminary was opened to provide suitable teaching for the Cape Verdean clergy. However, whatever became of it, in 1957 in Ponta Temerosa, in Praia, they contributed more to the training of erudite elites in Cape Verdean society than for the ordination of ministers of the church.
In the 20th Century (1941) the priests of the Congreation of the Holy Spirit (Portuguese, Swiss and later Cape Verdean) arrived in Santiago and Maio. This was a highly dynamic religious congregation of French origin, overseen by Bishop Faustino Moreira dos Santos (1941-1955), who was also from Espírito Santo. Like the Capuchin monks on other islands and a group of priests from Goa (including a bishop – José Colaço, 1956-75), they carried out religious work that reflected the modernisation that the Catholic church had undergone, particularly from the council Vatican II (in the 1960’s) onwards. On the other hand, this in turn triggered the appearance of a faction of “rabelados” (“rebels” in the area of Calheta and Tarrafal), who went against the renewal of rites and the adoption of rituals that were easier for believers to understand.
At the same time as they developed intense pastoral work, in which the bulk of the population was involved, as they were keen to return to authentic religious practices which had shaped their culture for centuries, the church relaunched the seminary, now in Ponta Temerosa (1957). Working with successive local governments that were determined to spread education to the entire population, they developed an important schooling program (for children and adults), which was notable particularly in the period when the Head of the Congregation in Cape Verde was José Maria de Sousa (1963-1974).
The first Cape Verdean bishop emerged from the priests of Espírito Santo, Paulino Évora (1975-2009). Another Cape Verdean, Arlindo Furtado, took over the second diocese in the country in 2003, which was then created in Mindelo, thus dividing the country into the diocese of Sotavento and Barlavento. Following the resignation of Don Paulino Évora in 2009, Don Arlindo Furtado took over the diocese of Praia, at a stage when a high proportion of the priests in Cape Verde were natives, trained in the seminary of S. José. Once more, as in S. Nicolau in the 19th Century, a large number of citizens emerged from the seminary to form the elite of civil society.
