Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This paper analyzes a foundational text, several historical contexts, a specific location, and the traces of past practices and beliefs found in architecture, art, and historical documents. The foundational text is the Rule of St. Benedict, a set of guidelines for a radical monastic lifestyle produced during the sixth century in what we now call Italy after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Though often thought of as a core text of “Western Civilization,” The Rule of St. Benedict assimilated and redefined existing monastic traditions with roots in North Africa and West Asia. It contains explicit instructions for the relatively egalitarian treatment of slaves within the monastery, though the fact that in its original context enslaved people tended not to be of African descent provides a basis for interesting historical comparisons. My paper assess the meanings and practices justified by reference to this foundational text as Benedictine monasticism, sugar cultivation, and plantation agriculture spread across the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic worlds, alongside a network of Benedictine monasteries scattered throughout the Portuguese Empire. My research focuses on Rio de Janeiro’s Benedictine monastery, founded in 1595 and still an active monastery today. As we shall see, the history of this building and the religious order that inhabits it provides a unique window not only into Rio’s colonial and postcolonial history, but also the role of the Benedictine Order throughout the Portuguese Empire, while demonstrating cultural connections reaching back into late antiquity and across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean worlds.