PENANCE PROCESSIONS IN THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS

Memories and devotional practices from a recent past in the archipelagos of Madeira e Azores

Abstract

This article arises from a historical and anthropological research, which we have been carrying out since 2010, in the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores, insular territories of Portugal, with the main objective of interpreting cultural memory, resulting from the presence of secular Franciscans on these islands, in the period that runs from the 17th century to the present. These two atlantic archipelagos, played an important role in the process of discovery / occupation and subsequent portuguese expansion from the 15th to the 17th centuries, particularly due to its importance as an economic, technical and cultural platform in the Modern Age period, being at the same time a starting point for several religious traditions originating in the metropolis towards the New World. The text traces an itinerary that points to analogies between the procession of the Ashes, originated in the former franciscan convent of São Bernardino, Câmara de Lobos, in the Madeira archipelago and its counterpart in the locality of Ribeira Grande, on the island of S. Miguel, in the archipelago of the Azores.