Frei Lourenço de Alcântara: um capuchinho entre os indígenas do alto sertão maranhense (1910-1935)

Abstract

This thesis analyzed the processes, objectives, means and results of the evangelization actions of the Lombard Capuchins among the indigenous people in Maranhão. For this, we take the trajectory of Friar Lourenço de Alcântara, as an access route to understanding broader issues involving the State, the Catholic Church, the Capuchin Mission and indigenous societies in Maranhão in the first decades of the twentieth century. The justification of the theme comes from experiences in the Research Group on History of Institutions, Educational Practices and Historical Subjects, of the Pedagogy Course, of the Imperatriz Science Center (CCIM) of the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA) and in the Continuing Education Project of Krikati Indigenous Teachers (2007) from the Faculty of Education Santa Terezinha (FEST), which led us to investigate the work of Friar Lourenço de Alcântara with the indigenous people. The object of study was the trajectory of Friar Lourenço de Alcântara who joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins (OFMCap) and directed his work to the indigenous people. We chose the period from 1910-1935 as a time frame for the research. Thus, we expose the thesis that the evangelization of the indigenous people of the upper hinterland of Maranhão happened through an educational process – catechetical-pedagogical action –, for example, through “flying missions” or “desobrigas”, one of the purposes of the Capuchins. We take as theoretical foundation the works of Nembro (1955), Iriarte (1985), Oliveira (1988; 2016), Ginzburg (1989), Gianellini (1993), Amoroso (1998; 2014), Zagonel (2001), Azzi (2008; 1992), Fragoso (2008), Miceli (2009), Farge (2009), Carvalho (2017), Sousa (2022), among others. We carried out research in primary sources in the Tombo books of the parishes of Barra do Corda, Grajaú, Carolina and Imperatriz, written reports, letters, letters to the government, official documents of the Order, reports of the “desobrigas” and chronicles written by the Capuchins found in the private archive from the Convent of Nossa Senhora do Carmo in São Luís – Maranhão, as well as in newspapers from the period of the Digital Hemeroteca of the National Library. The results of the research indicate the protagonism of Friar Lourenço de Alcântara in his “unusual trajectory” both in his personal life and in his academic training outside Brazil; his entry into the Order, in the places where he worked in the missionary work of evangelization through catechetical-pedagogical action, with indigenous people, strengthening the experiences of the apostolate in the upper hinterland of Maranhão, as part of the Capuchin Mission.