Maio chegou... Santa Rita de Cássia também: um estudo sobre a devoção de mulheres à “santa das causas impossíveis” no bairro Bonfim em Juiz de Fora

Abstract

The present dissertation on devotion of women to Santa Rita de Cássia in the Bonfim neighborhood of Juiz de Fora is the result of two years of research in History and Anthropology. It seeks to emphasize the history of Santa Rita based on different authors, the development of his devotion in Europe, in Brazil and in Juiz de Fora. In this first part, it can be concluded that the Saint Rita, unlike most Catholic saints, was an ordinary woman from the late Middle Ages. She married in her teenage years, suffered with her alcoholic husband and was involved in confusion and fights. She was the mother of two boys and her biggest fear was that the children followed the bad example of their father. She was still a young widow, and her children also died between the ages of twelve and fourteen. Santa Rita entered the convent at the age of thirty-six, where he dedicated himself to the life of prayer, meditation and service to the poor. For fifteen years he endured a forehead wound which, according to the authors, meant a thorn of Christ. In Juiz de Fora, in the 1940s, the knowledge about him was amplified from the construction of the parish in his honor in the Bonfim neighborhood. In the second part of the dissertation, we seek to portray through the fieldwork, the rituals of preparation to the feast of Santa Rita during the fortnight and the novena, as also, all the events of the parish connected with the celebration of the twenty-second of May as celebrations, tents, shows, etc. Most of the devotees said that Santa Rita represents a mother, friend, godmother and model of woman. They identify with her as woman and mother, but not in the position of submissive and suffering wife. The focus of devotion, promises, hope and dedication to volunteer services is not to ask for anything and only to thank the gift of motherhood. Through the symbolism of the exchange of roses, it is pleasing to the one who performed the miracles during the year and also takes home a rose as a guarantee that the request will be reached.