The Brazilian Rosa that upheaved the religious question in Portugal: the Calmon Case (1899–1901)

Ano: 2014 | Volume: 20 | Número: 36

Autores: Isabel Corrêa da Silva

Palavras-chave: religion; anticlericarism; laicism.

Resumo Inglês:

In the process of progressive secularization of society, which gained strength after the late 19th century in Europe and America, the relationships between State and Church assumed a conflicting dynamic that historiography began to call “religious question”. In this article, I propose to analyze the highpoint of this relational tension in Portugal based on a concrete episode, which, due to a convergence of circumstances and predispositions, became a symbol
of the laicization of the Portuguese society. It is the polemic generated around the religious calling of the daughter of a Brazilian consul in Porto — situation that led to one of the most fierce debates about religiousness, individual rights, and confessionality of the State, involving governmental instances and civil society in an unprecedented mobilization in such matters. Anticongreganism, anticlericalism, and laic militancy were the key elements of this
episode that involved Brazilian citizens and chancelleries and in which it is possible to clearly understand some of the most important cleavages that would later on determine the outcome of the religious question during the Republican regime, between 1910 and 1926.