Santos e devoções nas Minas Setecentistas: feições da religiosidade católica na comarca do Rio das Mortes (1730-1800)

Abstract

This research falls into a specific group of cultural experience which is the devotional religiosity in Minas Gerais with emphasis on devotions declared in about 234 wills recorded in the region of the Rio das Mortes during the eighteenth century. This research is supported in testers’ documents that were investigated and integrated different social groups as the free and freed or like whites and blacks taking into account the internal differentiations based on sex and fortune. Therefore, the focus of this work is to outline a general framework for the devotions of the testers, especially crossing the religious content of the document that reveals their predilections and devotional affections and contributes to determine groups’ forms of action in the religious life of society. Thus, it is intended to recover throughout the history of the region moments and events in which and through which we can map out active and strong presence of devotions that may be useful to think about the relationship between religion, culture and society.