MANA OR FOOD OF THE SOUL: PRAYER PRAYERS AND EXERCISES IN THE DISCLOSURE AND MAINTENANCE OF CATHOLIC MORALITY IN THE SOUTH OF BRAZIL (1930 - 1970)

Abstract

The studies about religious themes are recurrent in historical analysis of societies, but are not so common the ones that attend to the divulgation of moral precepts associated to faith, present in prayer books, the object of investigation of this work. It is about the reflection concerning the orientations registered in such pieces, which were gifted to catholic brides of the colonial region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The writings in the book “Mana ou alimento da alma devota” refer not only to prayers, but to the way of dress, adequate posture and prayer times, information about indulgences, and what is considered sin as well, adding yet exemplified observations, which allow an association with the religious and social practices of the studied period. The conclusions reveal that the history of religion travels through the more diverse documents, enabling, through content analysis, based on discourse investigation, situated by Orlandi (1999), the approximation of religious registers and historical contexts of Brazil, demonstrating faith and civil practices oriented by moral ideas. The used method is funded in historiographic exploration lined by the approach of the new history, which allows the dialog between diverse fonts in composing the scenarios and for the exam
of the studied religious culture.