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Jacinta de São José (15 October 1715 – 2 October 1768; born Maria Jacinta Pereira Rodrigues Aires), also known as Mother Jacinta de São José, was a religious visionary and lay woman associated with the Discalced Carmelite order. She is credited with founding the Convent of Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro, the first Carmelite convent in Brazil, despite opposition from the bishop of Rio de Janeiro and an investigation by the Inquisition.

Biography
Much of the details known about Jacinta de São José's life come from tradition and the four hagiographies written about her that, fitting the genre, highlight her spiritual achievements and cast her as an example for others. The three textual sources that survive today are:


 * “Life of Mother Jacinta of São José” (1819) by Discalced Carmelite friar João dos Santos
 * "Foundation of the Convent of Santa Teresa by Blessed Jacinta Rodrigues Aires, on the protection of the Count of Bobadela," in Brazilian magistrate and historian Baltasar da Silva Lisboa's Annals of Brazil (1835)
 * Life of the Servant of God Mother Jacinta de São José (1935) by Discalced Carmelite friar Nicolau de São José.

Early life (1715-1741)
Jacinta de São José was born to a wealthy Luso-Brazilian couple in Rio de Janeiro in 1715. Her parents were Maria de Lemos Pereira, a native of Rio de Janeiro, and José Rodrigues Aires (also spelled Ayres), originally from Porto, Portugal. They baptized her Jacinta Rodgriues Aires.

She had a younger sister named Francisca Rodrigues Aires and two half-brothers, José Gonçalves and Sebastião Rodrigues Aires.

Francisca de Jesus Maria passed away 1748.

João da Cruz, a Discalced Carmelite friar, served as bishop of Rio de Janeiro

become bishop of Rio de Janeiro

a religious of that Order, had taken possession of the bishopric of Rio de Janeiro, where he remained until 1744. He had as secretary another barefooted Carmelite friar, Br. Manoel de Jesus, without doubt the most important confessor of Jacinta. Although I have followed you for a relatively short period, fr. Manoel de Jesus was present at a crucial moment in the activities of the mystical Blessed, when she received innumerable visions at Chácara da Bica, who revealed to her the project of a conventual foundation

In the first years of life, the support that the father offers to the path of virtues chosen by Jacinta, even presenting her with instruments of penance, contrasts with the opposition of her mother Maria de Lemos Pereira: "For wanting to be religious, I found in his mother an inhuman executioner "(SANTOS, 1819, p.9). The years after his father's death in 1726 were one of the most difficult periods for Jacinta when she experienced serious illnesses that almost killed her (SANTOS, 1819, pp. 12-15). After 1730, the encouragement given by José Rodrigues Aires to him continued in the performance of his stepfather, André Gonçalves dos Santos. The illnesses suffered continually by Jacinta are also obstacles to the path of greater perfection that he longed for. In the 1730s, the father had obtained permission from the Portuguese Crown to send the two stepdaughters - Jacinta and Francisca – para professar em conventos do Reino. a fall momentarily removed her movements, preventing her from taking the desired state of nun. The clerical authorities are also divided between the incentive and the opposition to Jacinta's plans. Thus, one can contrast the attitude of frank sympathy manifested by the bishop D. Br. João da Cruz with the harsh attacks offered by the successor bishop, Br. Antônio do Desterro Malheiros. At the level of confessors, there is a similar contrast between the problems faced in the spiritual direction of fr. Jacinto de Foligno, a Capuchin friar, and the intense exchanges established with Fr. Manoel de Jesus.

While Catholic men's orders were part of Portugal's colonization of Brazil from the beginning, women's religious orders came late to Brazil, with the first convent founded in 1677. Before that time, the Portuguese Crown would not grant approval for the founding of women's religious centers there so as to encourage the r|elatively few available upper-class white women to marry (and populate the Portuguese colony) instead of joining convents, which was a very popular choice for Portuguese women of the time. Portuguese-Brazilian women who wished to join convents had to return to Portugal. Even after 1677, few convents and retreat houses (recolhimentos) were approved by the Crown.

Later life (1742-1768)
On the morning of March 27, 1742, Jacinta set out with her maid and brother José, who later became a priest, to set up a small contemplative home on the farm her uncle had secured for her. This is considered the founding date for the convent.

When Jacinta and Francisca Rodrigues Aires retired to contemplative life in 1742, they stopped using their family names and became known as "Jacinta de São José" and "Francisca de Jesus Maria respectively, adopting religious names as nuns in this period would do when they took their vows.

n the morning of March 27, 1742, accompanied by a maid and her brother José, who later became a priest, Jacinta left her home behind, left everything to find the Absolute All of God. He carried with him the inseparable image of the Child Jesus, preserved to this day in the convent and that the prioress gives to each postulant at the moment of crossing the doors of the cloister to enter Carmel. In the early morning of the following day, his sister Francisca also left the father's house to join him. This will be the turning point in the entire process of Jacinta's work and that is why it is considered the beginning of the foundation of our convent.

Between 1680 and 1797, for example, of 160 Portuguese-descended marriageable women in Salvador (the colonial capital), 14 percent were married, 8 percent remained celibate, and 77 percent entered a convent.

Much of what is known about Mother Jacinta's early life comes from a hagiography written by Father Nicolau de São José.

From 1744 until her death in 1768, Jacinta de São José struggled to found the Carmelite convent because of the direct opposition she faced from her bishop, Antônio do Desterro Malheiros, Bishop of Rio de Janeiro and other church authorities.

The analysis of the library of the Convent of Santa Teresa of Rio de Janeiro and of the readings of Jacinta de São José, in which the work of Profa. Leila Algranti occupies a prominent place, it is the starting point for other crosses that can be made (ALGRANTI, 2004a, pp. 2-11). Thus, based on the research of the author cited, one can identify among the works that were used by Jacinta the book Life of the venerable mother Rosa Maria Serio de Sancto Antonio, by the Italian Jesuit priest Giuseppe Gentili, who was translated into Portuguese and published in Lisbon in 1744

he implicit dialogue between the Life of Mother Jacinta de San José and the accusations made against her at the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition must be pointed out. Particularly in the testimony of the diocesan bishop of Rio de Janeiro, Br. Antônio do Desterro Malheiros, Jacinta did not recognize the extraordinary feats and virtues associated with her. On the contrary, she was accused of lack of humility, false sanctity and possible demonic temptation. n the seventeenth century and in the first decades of the following, there was a notable increase in the denunciations of false holiness presented to the Inquisition. In general, the accused women were beatas associated with the third orders of Carmo and of San Francisco, aspects that fit the religious experience of Jacinta.