PriestCicero was an important religious figure who acted in the Cariri valley, in the south of the state of Ceará. He saw his religious life transformed when, supposedly, he witnessed a miracle in the performance of the Eucharist in Juazeiro. He also became an important political leader in that region.
The news of the miracle, which would have taken place during a mass, made Juazeiro attract pilgrims from all over the North East, and Father Cicero became a figure of popular devotion. The Catholic Church did not recognize the miracle and excommunicated the priest, and his rehabilitation was only announced in 2015.
read more: Revolta de Juazeiro – movement that had priest Cícero Romão as one of its leaders
birth and youth
CiceropomegranateBaptist, marked in Brazilian history as priest Cícero, was born on March 24, 1844, in the city of Crato, Ceará. Many claim he was born on March 23, but there is no evidence of this. he was the son of
JoaquimpomegranateBaptist and JoaquinaviceRoman, also known as Dona Quinô.His father was a small merchant in Crato. From his little store, Joaquim supported his family, which was also complete with his daughters MariaAngelica, older, and Angelicavice, younger. Cicero had a simple childhood, but he still had access to studies.
He received formal education through a tutor, he later enrolled in a royal school, and was eventually sent to a school in the hinterland of Paraíba. His studies were interrupted with the news of his father's passing when he was 18 years old. Returning to Crato, he, in addition to dealing with his father's death, had to deal with the news of the bankruptcy of the business that supported the family.
Historian Jacqueline Hermann points out the fact that accounts of Cicero's life already show that, since he was little, he had a strong connection with a certain mysticism, announcing that he had visions and revelations|1|. It was supposedly in one of these mystical outbursts that Cicero had a vision of his father announcing that the family would not be in trouble.
This actually happened because your Godfather, O Colonel Antônio Luiz Alves Pequeno, he helped his godson's family in a moment of greatest need. The colonel, who was a very rich man, decided to finance Cicero's studies in Cajazeiras (Paraíba), and then paid for his studies at the Seminarinlittle beach, in Fortaleza.
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religious life
In the course, Cicero found great differences between the religiosity of Fortaleza and that of the Cariri valley (where is the city of Crato). This was due to the fact that the interior of Ceará suffered from the little presence of ecclesiastical authorities, mainly due to the fact that these authorities were not willing to visit these regions.
Journalist Lira Neto points out that this situation has created a problem from the standpoint of the control carried out by the Holy See. He states that this “vacuum [of the presence of the Catholic authorities] gave rise to a spontaneous religiosity in the among the people, a mysticism rich in manifestations, but little fond of the control and rituals of the Church official".|2|
In his training as a priest, Cicero found a strict teaching at the seminary in Fortaleza. there he was not considered one of the best students, especially in the subjects of oratory and Gregorian chant. In addition, he had problems with the seminary dean, who did not agree with his mystical views.
The rector of the seminary, Frenchman Pierre-Auguste Chevalier, even suggested that Cicero should not be ordained a priest, but the bishop of the Ceará, Dom Luis Antônio dos Santos, decided to go against this recommendation and ordained Cícero Romão as a priest on November 30, 1870. Known as Father Cicero now, he decided to return to Crato after his ordination.
In 1871, Father Cicero was invited to celebrate a mass in Juazeiro, neighboring town to Crato. There he supposedly had a dream, interpreted as a divine message so that he stay in the village and take care of your religious matters. Father Cicero received an invitation to stay in the village in April 1872. In the same year, he became the chaplain of the Chapel of Nossa Senhora das Dores.
Miracle
Father Cicero's life changed radically when he was 45 years old. In March 1889, during a mass, supposedly a miracle happened, when Maria de Araújo, a 28 year old laundress, saw your wafer turns red like blood. The miracle continued to occur at other masses, until the rector of the seminary in Crato announced to the faithful that Maria de Araújo's host had been dyed by the blood of Jesus Christ himself.
The case became news in the press, mainly because it announced that the supposed Eucharistic miracle (related to the Eucharist) was being repeated. What happened ended up forcing the authorities of the Catholic Church to investigate what was happening in the Cariri valley. The bishop of Ceará, Dom Joaquim José Vieira, in turn, refused to accept what happened in Juazeiro and announced that the transformation of the host by the blood of Jesus Christ was false.
Father Cicero insisted that the diocese of Fortaleza send a commission in order to investigate the supposed miracles that happened in Cariri. The commission was sent to the region in 1891 and was formed by ClyceriumgivesCoast, FranciscoFerreiraAntero, both priests, and also by two doctors, Marcos Rodrigues Madeira and Ildefonso Correia Lima.
Both doctors and priests concluded that there was no natural explanation for the transformation of the host into blood, which made a miracle of what happened. The bishop ordered a second commission to investigate the case, and it was concluded that the event was a hoax. Bishop Joaquim chose to favor the second commission.
This situation left Father Cicero without support from the Catholic Church. He fought all his life for the recognition of the miracle, but the Church at the time did not recognize him, because the supposed Eucharistic miracles did not fit the Catholic theology of the period. Despite the non-recognition of the Catholic Church, the Juazeiro's miracles attracted a crowd of faithful to the city, transforming it into a localinpilgrimage.
Father Cicero's insistence on defending miracles led the Catholic Church to punish him. In 1892, he was forbidden to preach, celebrate Mass and go to confession., and, in 1894, an order from Rome announced that what happened in Juazeiro would not be considered miracles. The Church also announced that pilgrimages to the city were prohibited..
Read more: Influences of the Catholic Church in Brazil
Father Cicero as a figure of devotion
The decision of the Catholic Church only reinforced the differences that existed between popular religiosity in the interior of Brazil and what was celebrated by ecclesiastical authorities. Despite the decisions of the Church against the miracle, the pilgrimages and Father Cicero, nothing has changed in popular belief. People continued to pilgrimage to the Cariri valley, making the region very relevant.
Father Cicero, in turn, even though punished by the Church, became a very relevant local personality, transforming himself into a figure of popular veneration and conquering enormous political capital in Cariri. The result of this was that he consolidated with a leadership in the town of Juazeiro.
The devotion in Juazeiro strengthened the pilgrimage of people to Cariri and allowed the emergence of four brotherhoods there. The growth of brotherhoods, especially the LegiongivesCross, made Father Cícero's message stronger, ensuring more faithful and funding for the church he led in Juazeiro.
Thus, as defined by Jacqueline Hermann, “the more he saw himself repudiated by the Church, the more the prestige of the Patriarch of Juazeiro increased”.|3| The term “patriarch” refers to the fact that Father Cicero occupied a position of both religious and political authority in Juazeiro. Its popularity was expressed by the Legion of Christ brotherhood, which had 10 thousand supporters.
As political leader, Father Cícero allied himself with other names in local politics and defended the emancipation of the town of Juazeiro. In 1911, the emancipationinJuazeiro it was politically recognized, and the city disassociated itself from Crato. After that, Father Cicero was elected first mayor of Juazeiro. The current name of the city (Juazeiro do Norte) was only adopted in the 1940s.
Father Cícero also articulated a pact between the colonels of the region. This agreement, signed on October 4, 1911 and known as “covenantFromcolonels”, was a political agreement in which the colonels of the Cariri valley region pledged to put an end to their disagreements to support the government of Ceará and the head of the oligarchy of that state, Antônio Pinto Nogueira Accioly Many also say that Father Cicero would have had ties with members of the yokesteel.
Death
Father Cicero's political power declined from the 1920s onwards, as did his health. THE 1930 revolution it marked the end of any political influence of the priest in Juazeiro and Ceará. At a very advanced age, it was up to him to accept the new times, mainly because his health was no longer the same.
Father Cicero's last years were marked by the occurrence of a cataract which left him blind in the left eye and with minimal vision in the right eye. The priest also underwent surgery to try to regain his sight, but was unsuccessful. also had nephritis and serious problemsintestinal.
His last months were of great agony because of his health condition, and his death happened on the day July 20, 1934. Father Cícero fought all his life for recognition of the miracle of Juazeiro and for his rehabilitation, but he did not live to see it happen.
THE rehabilitation of the “padim Ciço”, as it is popularly known, only happened on December 13, 2015, after nine years of work by an entourage of the Catholic Church created to study the life of the priest Brazilian.
Grades
|1| HERMAN, Jacqueline. Religion and politics at the dawn of the republic: the movements of Juazeiro, Canudos and Contestado. In.: FERREIRA, Jorge and DELGADO, Lucília de Almeida Neves. republican Brazil: the time of oligarchic liberalism: from the proclamation of the republic to the 1930 Revolution – First Republic (1889-1930). Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 2018, p. 117.
|2| GRANDSON, Lira. Father Cicero: Power, Faith, and War in the Backcountry (Kindle Places 395-396). Company of Letters. Kindle Edition.
|3| Same as note 1, page 123.
Image credits:
[1] Cacio Murilo and Shutterstock
[2] Landisvalth Lima and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
