JOURNEY OF A MESTIZO SAINT THROUGH COLONIAL BRAZIL

GONÇALO GARCIA, A STORY OF A DEVOTION AND ICONOGRAPHY

Abstract

The idea of this article is to raise some questions about the history of devotion and iconography
of Gonçalo Garcia, a saint of Indo-Portuguese origin, in Brazilian territory, based on some
curious episodes that occurred in the colonial period, notably in the Northeast and in Minas
Gerais. In Brazil, his devotion was very strong among the brown population, mainly due to the
opinion that was built around the possible mestizo color of the saint, contributing to the
occurrence of social disputes in cities and towns at the time. Initially, an attempt was made to
indicate how the history of the saint and his iconography were constructed, still in the East, and
how the image of a brown or mestizo saint could have been formed. These are questions that
will be punctuated here, based on information deduced from chronicles, sermons, and                                                                          documents of the time. These are clues that will allow us to understand how his devotion and
iconography were mixed in colonial Brazil with the daily lives of people of color.