The Pretos Devotees of the Rosary in the Public Space of the Parish, Vila Rica, in Minas Gerais

Abstract

This article approaches the spatiality of the black and slave devotions in the territorial framework of border parishes in the county of Vila Rica. From the personal dimension of devotion, in situations of distressing daily life, to the collective corporation in order to classify the pretos of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary, this analysis focuses on the meaning of public space for the social representation of blacks that was anchored in the compromise of devotion, in fact, built in the fluidity and in the political-religious dynamism. The basic invocation of public worship of the pretos - African slaves (also freedmen) - contributed to arrange the socio-cultural divisions, and dismantled in a specific black breviary, in which other sanctities were gathered, including Our Lady of Mercy and St. Ephigenia. Through the mediation of saints, this mobility of faith is tied with the parish's space (effect of the clash on ecclesiastical and secular rights between the mother church and chapels), to diffuse urbanization of the mining territory, and the confrontation between the representations of blacks and mestizos, under the aegis of Catholic patrons.

Keywords
Brotherhood of the Rosary; public space; social quality