A God's man serving the crown: the spiritual and temporal dimensions of D. Friar João de São José Queirós' pastoral travels in the bishopric of Grão-Pará (1759-1763)

Abstract

D. Friar João de São José Queirós was nominated Bishop of Grão Pará in 1759. His erudite backgrounds, his political opinions and his aversion against the jesuitics seem to make him the most appropriate person according the Crown to hold this position, in a moment when these opinions were appreciated by the Portuguese authorities. The Grão-Pará State were growing in importance in the Seaborne Empire and choosing people of trust who would answer to the kingdom's expectations of governability were a very important condition to attain unto regal authority in the Portuguese Amazon. When he arrived in there, the Bishop faced a large territory, with desolated people and a still incipient administrative net. Making two pastoral travels between 1760 and 1763, he wrote reports which will allow us to understand relevant matters to that time, such as the treatment given to the Indians and to the peasants, the territorial identification and the relations with the men of reputation. Therefore, our assumption is that his episcopal procedure followed two directions that conjugate and combine themselves: a spiritual aspect, led by the First Constitution of the Archbishopric of Bahia and by pastoral travels guides, according to which the bishop were a sheep keeper who had to take care of his flock through the sacraments and the exhortation; and a temporal aspect, expressed in official manuscripted letters exchanged by the Metropolis and the Government of the Grão-Pará State, according to which the bishop were a King's agent, who should supervise his jurisdiction and moderate the flaws that damage the Empire. (AU)