As a follow-up question to the one below (if anyone could oblige, thanks Dr Pereira):
I know from the writings of Themistocles DaSilva that there is a reference to Our Lady of Boa Morte in the area around Arossim: QUOTE In 1635, when a new Church was built in Velcao, the villages of Velcao, Pale,Chicolna and Issorsim were dismembered from St. Thomas Parish. The Church underwent further improvements, the major one in 1863. The main altar is dedicated to St. Thomas,the patron saint, the side altar to the north to Our Lady of Boa Vida [Good Life] and to the left to Our Lady of Boa Morte [Good Death]. The fourth altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,along the north wall facing south was erected in 1900. UNQUOTE Question: 1. Is the devotion to Our Lady of Boa Morte restricted to pockets in Goa and Brasil (as below) or is it of wider prevalence within Catholism worldwide? 2. The Sixth Night rituals (apparently a shared practice among Goan Hindu and some Catholic sections too), is something which Silviano Barbosa has drawn attention to through his novel which focuses on this belief. Is it true that prayer are said to the Virgin of Boa Morte on the sixth day in some Catholic households? If so, would anyone know the possible reason for this? Does it have something to do with the belief that the fate of a child is written out on this day, and fate could have something to do with death, etc? 3. How widespread is the belief in the Sixth Night in Goan society? I mean, both among the Catholic and Hindu communities, now and say two or three decades earlier? I was surprised not to find a reference to Boa Morte even in the Catholic Encyclopedia, but maybe that is because it was influenced by the Anglophone (rather than the Lusophone) worldview.... Rgds, FN Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 On 27 September 2010 01:41, Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> wrote: > Does anyone know what "Boa Morte" connotes in the context of Goan Catholicism? > > An online search only points to a confraternity of Afro-Brasilian > women in Bahia > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Good_Death] > and there doesn't seem to be any link even in the Catholic > Encyclopedia. Any points would be appreciated... FN
