Roman Catholic

The Roman Catholic faith has been the predominant faith of Brazil since its earliest settlement by Europeans in the 1500s. Catholic clergy accompanied the first explorers and colonizers to Brazil. The Jesuits made significant missionary and educational efforts, especially among the Indians. From 1549 until their expulsion in 1759, the Jesuits dominated religious life in the colony. The Franciscan friars also played an important role in Brazil.

A few secular priests were brought to Brazil by the donatarios (land lords of large grants of land called captaincies) in the early 1500s to attend to the spiritual needs of the colonists. The colony was made a separate diocese in 1551. The following year the first bishop of Brazil reached Bahia. In 1676 Bahia became the seat of an archbishopric, and by the end of the colonial period there were bishoprics in Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Maranhão, Pará, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais.

The Catholic Church was directed by bishops, Catholic Orders, and the secular clergy. The Catholic Church was the most important cohesive force in Brazilian life.

In 1563 the Council of Trent formalized record-keeping practices that were already being followed in much of the Catholic world. Separate books were kept for baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and deaths or burials.

Judaism

Jews immigrated quite early to Brazil. The marranos, Jews who were forced to become Christians but who continued to practice their religion secretly, lived in Brazil from the earliest settlements.

During the Dutch occupation of northern Brazil from 1648 to 1653, two Jewish congregations were formed: Zur Israel in Recife and Magan Abraham in Mauricia. After these communities were disbanded in Brazil, the people helped establish communities in Aruba, Curaçao, Barbados, Amsterdam, London, and New York. A list of the names of these people can be found in:

Wiznitzer, Arnold. The Record of the Earliest Jewish Community in the New World. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1954. (FHL book 981.34/R1 F2w; computer number 0022828.)

Although the colony was subject to the Inquisition in Lisbon, the Inquisition in Brazil was mild compared with how it was administered in Mexico and Peru. Those in Brazil who were accused of being Jewish were taken to Lisbon and tried there. Documents from their trials in Portugal are on microfilm at the Family History Library:

Inquisição de Lisboa (Inquisition of Lisbon). Lisboa: Laboratórios Fototécnicos, N.p., (1975). (On 77 FHL films, beginning with 078450; computer number 0177804.)

Today the largest Jewish congregation in South America, Congregação Israelita Paulista, is in São Paulo, with 2,000 families. The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies is developing a database of all Jewish cemeteries and inscriptions in the world. It lists information about Jewish cemeteries in Brazil on its Internet site:

www1.jewishgen.org/cemetery/brazil.htm