SAINT WORSHIP.
What is the real religion of the Brazilians? It is more a saint worship
than anything else. Saint worship is at its core. Mary is the chief
saint. All prayers are made to her. She is the intercessor. The Litany
is all addressed to Mary. It runs, "Oh Mary, hear us, etc." She is
worshiped under different aspects--Mary of the Sailors, Mary of the
Conception, Mary of the Candles, Mary of the Rosary, ad infinitum. Even
Christ is worshiped as a saint. The patron saint of Campos, for
instance, is called Sao Salvador (St. Savior). The city of Bahia is
called Sao Salvador. Its patron saint is Jesus.
A saint is an intercessor between man and God. Because of his holiness,
he has favor with God, and therefore the people pray to him. Very few
consider the saint lower than God. They offer sacrifices, make prayers
and burn candles to the saint.
St. Anthony of Padua is a very hard-worked saint. He has placed upon
him the double duty of furnishing suitors for all the young women and
of leading the armies of the Republic to victory. No wonder this
overworked saint gets into trouble. Young women place him in their
rooms, burn candles and offer prayers before him. He is dressed up in
the finest toggery and is given great honor. If, however, after awhile
he does not bring along the suitor, he is given a sound beating, or he
may be hung head downwards in a well or stood on his head under a
table. These indignities are heaped upon him in order to force him to
produce the suitor which the young lady very much desires. He is also
the military saint. In the time of the Empire, he was carried at the
head of the army and had the rank of a colonel. Even after the Empire
was abolished, he retained his rank for many years and received from
the government the salary of a colonel. Such an idol was in Bahia and
his salary was discontinued only five years ago. The money went, of
course, to the priest in the church where the image was kept.
Every town, village and country seat has its protecting saint. In time
of drouth they in many places carry the saint through the streets in
procession. He is taken from his place in the church to some hut,
maybe, where he is placed beneath the altar. This is done in order to
cause him to bring rain. After the rain comes he is taken out and with
great distinction is replaced in his original niche. They do this
sometimes in the case of a scourge of insects or disease.
Late one evening, after Missionary Ginsburg and I had returned from a
trip into the interior of the State of Bahia, we arrived in the city of
Nazareth. It is a town of about 10,000 inhabitants. We were to wait
here until the following morning for the boat which was to take us to
Bahia.
As we went down the street we saw a great throng of people surging
about an image which was being carried upon the shoulders of some men.
Two priests walked in front to direct the movements of the procession.
More than half of the people in the city must have been in the
procession. They paraded far out into the country, crossed to the
opposite side of the river, wound themselves back and forth through the
narrow streets until a late hour at night. At eleven o'clock just
before we retired, we stood for some time watching the procession pass
the hotel where we were stopping. It was a miserably ugly little image,
gaudily decorated. It was being paraded through the streets for the
purpose of staying the plague of smallpox, which at that time was
scourging the town. When we saw the procession last it had been
augmented by such numbers that it appeared as if the entire city was
following this image. They seemed to believe that it could really charm
away the smallpox.
This is not an isolated case. It is typical. Every patron saint has
laid upon him at times the responsibility of breaking a drouth or the
effects of a dreadful scourge which may be afflicting the people. It is
the veriest sort of idolatry.
One of the most pitiful exhibitions of superstition to be found in
Brazil is that in connection with the many shrines to which pilgrimages
are made by thousands of people and at which places great miracles are
supposed to be performed. In Bahia there is a famous shrine called Bom
Fim (Good End). It is located on a hill in the suburbs of the city.
Years ago tradition has it, the image of San Salvador was found on the
summit of this hill. A priest took charge of the image and removed it
to a church. On the following morning the image was missing, and upon
going to the spot where he first found it, he discovered the image.
Again he took it to the church, and again on the following day, he
found the image at the original place. The tradition was, therefore,
started that the image had fallen from Heaven to the top of the hill,
and every time it was removed from this spot it, of itself, returned.
So it was taken for granted that the image desired its shrine built on
this spot. At first there was a little shrine constructed, and
afterward was built the magnificent edifice which now shelters the
image.
To this place the thousands go annually upon pilgrimages. One of the
most gruesome spectacles to be found anywhere is in a side room near
the altar. From the ceiling are suspended wax and plaster of paris
reproductions called ex-votos of literally every portion of the
body--feet, hands, limbs, heads, all portions--the ceiling space is
completely covered with these uncanny figures. The wall is hung with
pictures, which portray all sorts of scenes, such as a man in
shipwreck, a carpenter falling down a ladder, a child falling out of a
second-story window, death chambers of various people, etc. These
figures and pictures are intended to represent miracles. When these
people were in their afflictions they prayed to the image of the Good
End and made a promise that if they should recover they would bring one
of these votive offerings of the part affected, whether of man or
beast, to the shrine. Some of them came before the cure was effected,
and with a prayer, left the image behind and the cures of their disease
or afflictions were attributed to the image of Bom Fim. It is said that
when this church is given its annual cleaning, just before the
celebration of the saint's day, thousands of people congregate here,
roll in the waters which are used to wash out the building, and drink
the filthy stuff, deeming it to be holy. There is hardly a more
revolting scene to be found anywhere, and all in the name of religion.
Until recently, when the police put an end to it, a most disgusting
species of holy dance was observed on this annual day in which the most
sensual practices were indulged.
Perhaps the most famous shrine in all Brazil is in the far interior of
the State of Bahia on the San Francisco River. It is the famous Lapa.
The image has its shrine in a cave in a very remarkable geological
formation. One hundred thousand people make pilgrimages to this shrine
every year from all of the States in Brazil. The last Emperor himself
made a visit to this shrine. From June to August of last year $20,000
was collected from the pilgrims. Our missionary, Jackson, met a man who
had been on the way six months. It required him a year to make this
trip. The same missionary saw a family from the State of Alagoas which
had been on the journey six weeks. Dr. Z. C. Taylor says he passed
through sections that had been almost depopulated because the men had
sold out their homes, horses and cattle in order to seek a miracle in
their favor at this same shrine. Fire destroyed the image in 1902.
Protestants were accused of setting fire to it because a missionary was
near at the time. (He was forty miles away.) In the controversy that
arose the missionary noted that, inasmuch as the new image was sent by
freight and not by ticket, it must be an idol and not a saint. Suffice
it to say, that a new image was placed and the people are worshiping it
with the same zeal with which they worshiped the old, even though the
new one came by freight and the old one was supposed to have fallen
from Heaven. It is believed to have miracle working power and to give
great merit to one who makes the pilgrimage to it.
In the daily paper called the "Provinca," published in Pernambuco,
there was printed on August 23, 1910, the following telegram from the
city of Rio, the capital of the Republic.
"The Seculo (Century) of today announces that on St. Leopold street in
Andarahy (a suburb of Rio) there was discovered a fountain of water in
a hollow rock, in which a plebian found an image of a saint.
"This image," adds the Seculo, "although in water, did not present the
least vestige of humidity. The news of this curious discovery was
immediately circulated, and there was a great pilgrimage, including a
reporter of the Seculo, to this miraculous fountain in Andarahy."
It is very probable that this telegram heralds the advent of a new
shrine, because it is in this fashion that these so-called
miracle-working shrines are brought into existence.
Not all of these shrines are canonized, but nevertheless they have
power over the people. As we were making a trip into the interior of
the State of Pernambuco we passed a station called Severino. Near the
station we could see a splendid church building which had been
constructed in honor of St. Severino. This saint is not in the
calendar, not recognized by the church nor the bishop, yet it is
popular all over Brazil. Many people are named after him, and to this
shrine are brought many of the same sort of things as were described in
connection with the shrine of the Good End. This idol is stuffed with
sugar-cane pith. The head of it was found in the woods some time ago. A
tradition was started that an image had fallen from Heaven. The
superstitious people believed the report and soon a shrine was in full
operation, which today, even though it be not canonized, is exerting a
far-reaching influence. The owner of the shrine gave up his farming and
lives handsomely on the offerings the deluded bring to his private
shrine.
In one of the most magnificent churches in Bahia is an image of a negro
saint. This holy being won his canonization as a reward for stealing
money from his master to contribute to the church. That is it: Do
anything you please, provided you share the spoils with the church.
Across the breast of the Virgin's image in the church of Our Lady of
Penha in Pernambuco, before which church the Bibles were burned in
1903, are written the following words: "One hundred days' indulgence to
the person who will kiss the holy foot of the Holy Virgin." This
pitifully expresses, perhaps, the thought behind saint worship. It is
the hope that the aching of the sinful heart may find some assuagement
through the worship of these gilded, gaudy images. It is claimed by the
priests and some of the more intelligent that the image worshiped is
only a concrete representation of the saint, and it contains
symbolically the spirit of the saint. To be sure! This is exactly the
reason the more intelligent fetish worshiper in Africa assigns for
worshiping his hand-made god. The etone or piece of wood is a
representative of God and to a degree contains His spirit. Such worship
is condemned as being idolatry in the African. The thing which is
idolatry in the African must be idolatry in the Catholic. Even the
Catholics will condemn the idol worship of the heathen, and yet this
same Catholic church has in scores of places in South America and in
other heathen lands, taken the identical images worshiped by the
heathen and converted them into Catholic saints.
In the city of Braga, in Portugal, is a temple which centuries ago was
devoted to Jupiter. It was afterward converted into a Catholic church
and dedicated to St. Peter. The idol Jupiter, with two keys in his
hand, was consecrated into St. Peter. In another part of the same city
is a temple devoted to Janus in Roman times, which was turned into a
temple dedicated to St. John. The idol which formerly was worshiped as
Janus is being now worshiped as St. John. In the same temple there is
an image now consecrated as St. Mark which was formerly the god Mars.
The saint worship in Brazil is just as heathenish. In China Buddhist
idols were renamed Jehosaphat by the Jesuits and worshiped. Their
practices in Brazil are in keeping with their methods in other lands.
What is the difference between a worshiper who thus seeks indulgence
through the worship of an image in Brazil and a like worshiper with a
like soul need bowing before a similar wooden image in Africa or China?