Our Lady of the Rosary Parish is a Brazilian Catholic ecclesiastical circumscription located in the municipality of Pirenópolis, in Goiás, created in August 1736 with the establishment of Vila de Meia Ponte as a parish. Since its origin until 1745, it was part of the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Rio de Janeiro. Later, it became part of the Diocese of Goiás until 1956. Between 1956 and 1966 it was included in the territory of the Diocese of Goiânia, and from 1966 on, it has been in the Diocese of Anápolis, in Pastoral Region 03.
The Our Lady of the Rosary Parish has a considerable collection of material heritage in its territory, duly protected by municipal, state, and federal legislation. They are legacies preserved since the Brazilian colonial and imperial period, which consist of sacred images, lanterns and processional crosses, navets, palliums, scaffolds, bells, vestments, and other liturgical objects in silver and gold, deposited in chapels, churches, and museums. The Mother Church of Pirenópolis stands out, built by the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament in 1728. In addition, there are other temples that influenced the urban growth of the city of Pirenópolis, its rural conglomerates, and other territorial portions that initially comprised partial or total parts of the current Diocese of Anápolis, Diocese of Formosa, Diocese of Uruaçu, Diocese of Luziânia, Archdiocese of Brasília, and Archdiocese of Goiânia.
The Our Lady of the Rosary Parish is a place that stands out for its popular Catholicism manifestations, an intangible heritage that is a great expression of the sociability of Pirenópolis. These manifestations are based on the traditional Catholic faith, on syncretism, on the diversity of symbols, and on the feasts that organize a specific culture, attracting not only the city's descendants who live in other places, but also tourists and visitors to see the performance of groups that have maintained the local culture for centuries. These customs are influenced by the European culture of the Portuguese who populated the city, especially the confraternities that dictated the local customs and knowledge from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Besides this, the presence of Afro-Brazilian cultural and religious manifestations is noticeable, whether in the ringing of the bells that are reminiscent of the congada and the Banda de Couro that accompany the celebrations, or in the influences of the people from the countryside, which are seen in the folias, the kermesses, the auctions, and in the simplicity of people's devotion.
Among the many festivities that take place in the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish are Holy Week, the Corpus Christi celebrations, the Feast of Mount Carmel in the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Feast of Bonfim in the Church of Our Lord of Bonfim, and the Feast of the Good Death, among others. However, the Feast of the Divine is recognized as intangible cultural heritage by IPHAN and is world famous for its Cavalhadas, having been awarded in 2022 by the World Tourist Journalism Organization as the event of the year, receiving 30 thousand tourists in 2023.
History Due to the inexistence of official documents at the time, the origins of the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish are narrated by popular oratory, which relates it to the foundation of Meia Ponte, currently the city of Pirenópolis, that according to ancient local custom, has Our Lady of the Rosary as its patron saint, whose liturgical memory is celebrated on October 7. Only in 2021 a consensual agreement on the foundation date of Pirenópolis was established, with the Municipal Law Nº 941, which instituted October 7 as the city's foundation date.
However, it is known that in 1728, the society of the then Minas de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Meia Ponte, with the proper provisions and licenses of the time, erected the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament, which, as in other cities of the Brazilian colonial period, was the fraternity responsible for building the Mother Churches, the only ones that could have a tabernacle. The temple was built with characteristics of Brazilian colonial architecture and slave labor, by using the mixed technique of earth structure, stone masonry, and adobe, with ornamentation gradually produced in the following decades in the baroque, rococo, and neoclassical style altars.
In 1731, a mission of the Esmolares da Terra Santa was erected next to the current Coreto Square, founded in Meia Ponte by Friar João de Jesus e Maria, assisted by Friar Domingos de Santiago, and together, they also built the Hospice of the Holy Land, a network of hostels for Franciscan religious who traveled through towns and cities collecting alms for the conservation of the Holy Land, in Palestine. The company also established a presence in the cities of Salvador, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Ouro Preto, Sabará, São João Del Rei, Diamantina, Goiás, Itu, and São Paulo. The convent of Pirenópolis was dedicated to Immaculate Conception.
According to the Baptistery Book that is still present in the parish archives, sections of the church were concluded quickly, since the first baptism in the Church of the Rosary took place in 1732, demonstrating the organization and agility of Meia Ponte, which aimed to be the capital of Goiás and seat of the Diocese. In 1734, the burials of the members of the Irmandade do Santíssimo and other authorities that took place there began to be registered in the obituary book. In this period, 15 diocesan priests were active, such as José Vieira de Paiva, José Pinto Braga, José Cardoso Marinho, Manuel Teixeira and Antônio de Oliveira Gago.
During this period, due to the many irregularities in the gold exploitation, murders and smuggling in the Arraial de Meia Ponte, the diocesan visitator Father José de F. Vasconcelos became chaplain as intervenor in 1732, being in charge of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary until 1734, year in which Pedro Monteiro de Araújo assumed as the first provisioned priest, remaining in charge of the parish until 1741. During Monteiro's administration, the Chapel of the Rosary was upgraded to the condition of Mother Church, dismembered from the Parish of Saint Anne of Vila Boa, the first in Goiás.
In October 1737, the Book of Deaths started to register deaths in Corumbá de Goiás, where the Chapel of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, inaugurated in 1734 and subordinated to the Rosary Parish, began to be attended by Father Antônio Soares. The Chapel of Peñafrancia, elevated to the status of Mother Church in 1840, was the pioneer of the parishes of Abadiânia, Alexânia and Cocalzinho. The Portuguese influence of the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish replicated the traditions of Pirenópolis in the Chapel of Peñafrancia in Corumbá, such as the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Week celebrations, Feast of Saint Sebastian, Feast of the Divine, Choir, Orchestra and band in the masses and processions, as well as the Cavalhadas, held in the city in September during the patron saint's feast.
On December 22, 1742, the Visitor Father José F. Vascocellos authorized the creation of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People, which, in 1743, began the construction of its headquarters, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People. As the works on the Church of the Rosary progressed, held by slaves on their Sundays off and built with characteristics of the Brazilian colonial architecture using the mixed technique of earth structure, stone masonry and adobe, with the main altar in baroque style and the altars of the nave carved in rococo style, the Brotherhood of the Rosary got its statute approved on August 22, 1758. At this time, with the organized structure, the Brotherhood of the Rosary started to celebrate the Reign of Our Lady of the Rosary in that church, always celebrated on the first Sunday of October and solemnly performed by the Brotherhood's Chaplain.
In this period, 03 other Brotherhoods were created in the Mother Church, with their respective side altars in the nave: Brotherhood of Souls of Saint Michael, Brotherhood of Saint Anthony and Brotherhood of Saint Anne, besides the Third Order of Saint Francis of Paola, also responsible for the construction of one of the side altars of the Mother Church. With the removal of the Esmolares from Terra Santa to Traíras, the third order began to administer the Hospice and Chapel until its transfer to the state government, which transformed it into an educational institution and eventually demolished it in the 19th century.
In mid-1746, the Chapel of Saint Lucy emerged in the jurisdiction of Luziânia, subordinated to the Rosary Parish. By decree of December 21, 1756, the Chapel of Saint Lucy was established as a parish. The Diocese of Luziânia, Diocese of Formosa and Archdiocese of Brasilia were created from the initial territory of the Luziânia Parish.
In 1748, in the current city of Jaraguá, the churches of Saint Joseph and Our Lady of Peñafrancia were completed in 1748, with the spiritual assistance of the Rosary Parish. As in Corumbá de Goiás, the customs performed in the Rosary Parish were reproduced in the Church of Peñafrancia in Jaraguá, elevated to the status of parish in 1833 and from it were created the parishes of the cities: Petrolina, Uruana, Goianésia, Rialma, Itaguaru, Santa Isabel and São Francisco de Goiás, which in turn originated the parishes of Jesúpolis.
In 1750, Luciano da Costa Teixeira and his son-in-law Antônio Rodrigues Frota, using slave labor, built the private church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the right bank of the Almas River. The chapel was built in colonial architecture, earth structure, stone stonework and adobe, and was endowed with everything necessary for divine worship. In the 19th century, after the death of the benefactors, who were buried in the church and left no heirs, the property of the church was included in the parish. The church has baroque and rococo carvings, and preserves altarpieces and pieces from the demolition of other temples in the city, which today make up the local Museum of Sacred Art. In 1940 the brotherhood of Our Lady of Carmel was created there, but is now extinct.
Also in 1750, under the initiative of Sergeant-Major Antônio José de Campos and making use of slave labor, the Church of Our Lord of Bonfim was built of adobe and in earth structure. Considered one of the state's baroque gems, Sergeant Campos bought and brought an image of Our Lord of Bonfim from Salvador, and decorated it with rococo altars and paintings. In the 18th century, the Brotherhood of Our Lord of Bonfim, now extinct, was installed in this church. This fraternity used to sponsor weekly mass celebrations on Fridays, with choir and orchestra. The Church of Bonfim, in several occasions served as a substitute for the Mother Church when it was under repairs.