Hello, Terri (and John), My experience in seeing the baptism records is that the priest conducts an exorcism when the children had already been baptized by a non-priest. In some circumstances, people believed the baby would die without being baptized so they'd baptize them themselves. However, since these people were not priests, before the second baptism, the priest would perform a symbolic exorcism.
In the records above, if you look carefully, you'll notice the reference to the prior 'lay' baptism, which motivated the need for the exorcism. In the early Christian church, any Christian could baptize another. But the power of the church would be threatened if normal people started doing these rites.. Indeed, between 1860 and 1910, Portugal kept passing laws to create a Civil Register, so that the birth, marriage and death certificates could be managed by the Government and not the Church. Always with little results, until the Monarchy was abolished and the civil society took that power from them. I guess the exorcism was done to show the people that they had sinned in baptizing the baby, and that a real priest was needed. João C. Ventura On Tuesday, November 5, 2013 12:36:43 PM UTC+1, John Raposo wrote: > > As I understand it, it was and still is part of the Baptismal ceremony. > Baptism is the pouring of the water over the head baptizing "in the name of > the Father,,,," etc. But before you get to the point, there is the > anointing with holy oils and the priest applying a grain or two of salt on > his thumb to the mouth of the baby. And then there is the rejection of > Satan, declared on the baby's behalf by the Godparents. Although I am not a > priest, I think the salt applied to the lips initiates a symbollic > expulsion of Satan from the newborn leaving him clean and open to receiving > Christ. Maybe there is a priest or religious on the list that can provide > clearer (and more accurate) information. > > John Miranda Raposo > > > > On Tuesday, November 5, 2013 12:12 AM, Terri > <[email protected]<javascript:>> > wrote: > I found it creepy by interesting that in a few baptism records I needed > for children in Ginetes, the word 'exorcismos' appeared. This does mean > exorcisms by a priest were performed right? or does this word have ANOTHER > meaning in Portuguese? I've attached two records below. > > Terri Santos > Researching Agua d'Alto, Agua de Pau, Ginetes, Vila Franca do Campo Sao > Pedro and Sao Miguel > -- > For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail > (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the > right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my > membership." > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores. > > > -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
