Catholicism and power at Kongo: the role of the local priests, 16th to 18th centuries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/1983-201X.46181Keywords:
Christian Kongo, Kongolese priests, Local powersAbstract
While incorporating Catholic rituals and believes at the local life and turning them important for the consolidation of hierarchical structures of power, the Kongo chiefs begun to share their life with missionáries and looked after the religion and written words to maintain a relationship with the new people who begun to have business at their land since the end of the 15th century, especially speaking the Portuguese officials and the emissaries from the Catholic Church and the Vatican. The native priests and catechists educated at the missionary schools at Kongo and Angola, or even at Lisbon, were fundamental for the structuration of new practices and believes resultant from mixed elements from Christianity and local traditional religion. As an example of that situation we present here a specific priest: D. Calixto Zelotes dos Reis Magos, about whom we have some sparse information and who had a key role in some local political events.
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References
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