In memory of Saint Thomas: footsteps and peasant conversion services (16th and 17th century)

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the Jesuit discourse production from the 16th and 17th centuries, which is markedly and simultaneously characterized by disenchantment towards the lack of evidence supporting religious faith and by the re-energizing news of a previous knowledge of the Christian faith by the Indians. Epistolary narratives, as well as sermons chronicles written by Jesuit priests, reveal the importance given to the myth of Saint Thomas, evoked in order to justify receptivity and success of the civilizing and evangelizing endeavors led by the Society of Jesus. The memory of the presence of the Apostle in America and the value given by the missionaries to his teachings have given rise to the claim of a Jesuit predestination and predisposition of Native Americans towards Christianity.