THE REMAINING ANTONIAN IMAGINARY OF THE PARISHES OF VILA DE MAGÉ, AT THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY

Abstract

One of the most popular saints in Brazil, Santo Antônio had his devotion widespread in the
parishes that make up the Municipality of Magé, in the recess of Guanabara Bay, in the
17th/18th centuries. Our objective was to analyze the devotional images of Santo Antônio
remaining from the collections of the oldest parishes in colonial Magé. Among the sources, the
reports of the Marquês do Lavradio (1779) and Monsignor Pizarro (1794) and the catalog of
the exhibition Devoção e Esquecimento (2001), held at Casa França-Brasil, in Rio de Janeiro.
The results indicate that the devotion to Saint Anthony was developed, mainly, in the Igreja
Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Piedade de Inhomirim, on the margins of the variant of the                                                                           New Path, which connected the Recôncavo to the Diamantino District in the Captaincy of                                                                          Minas Gerais, as well as the existence of at least two Antonian representations found in                                                                       the Parish of São Nicolau de Suruí, with typical characteristics of Brazilian Baroque.