Penitential processions
Original title: Procissões de penitencia
Describes the penitential processions formerly held in Madeira, in which hooded penitents carried images, heavy loads and flogged themselves, usually to pray for rain or other favours. It records the last such rigorous procession in Funchal, with the image of Nossa Senhora do Monte, and the milder survivals of the custom.
Penitential processions
A foreign work published in 1819 describes these processions as follows:
In the processions of penance there appear images of the Saviour, the Virgin and various saints, carried on the shoulders of penitents clad in habits of blue cotton, with only the openings needed to allow them to see and breathe. These processions are accompanied by part of the clergy, in magnificent vestments, and by a military detachment with its band. Beside the penitents who carry the images walk others bearing heavy stones, iron bars, chains, etc., or striking their backs with bundles of wire or nettles until the blood drips.
Penitential processions were held either to beg heaven for rain or some other favour, or to show the population’s sorrow for some offence committed against Providence. Some fifty-odd years ago the image of Our Lady of the Mount (Nossa Senhora do Monte) was taken out in procession along the Caminho dos Saltos (‘falls’), across the Levada (‘irrigation channel’) and back to its church by the Caminho do Monte. Along this whole long route the image was accompanied by numerous penitents who either carried heavy loads or scourged themselves or wounded themselves with brambles (1921).
This was, we believe, the last procession of rigorous penance held in Funchal. It is said that, having been held because of a drought that had long been felt, it was already raining heavily when the image was returned to the church of Monte.
In the Passos procession (Lenten procession of Christ carrying the Cross) and the Ash Wednesday procession, men once appeared with scourges, chains or iron bars, but that custom disappeared long ago. In modern times the only practice is for a few women penitents to join the Passos procession and the Good Friday procession, usually barefoot, which is a great sacrifice only for those to whom wearing shoes is a necessity.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 05
- Caminho do Monte
Funchal. Road by which the procession returned to the Monte church.
Road leading from Funchal up to Monte, opened on its present route in the early 19th century. The Elucidário records it as the route by which penitential processions returned to the Monte church, as bordering several sanatorium properties, and as the road at whose start stood the former seminary where the Coimbra University tuna lodged.
- Caminho dos Saltos
Funchal. Route followed by the last rigorous penitential procession with the Monte image.
The Caminho dos Saltos is a road in Funchal, the route of the last rigorous penitential procession with the Monte image. A reservoir receiving the Tornos water for the city's water supply stands there.
- Church of Our Lady of the Mount
Funchal. Church from which the image of Nossa Senhora do Monte set out and to which it returned.
Pilgrimage church and, from 1565, parish church of Monte, standing at 595 m above Funchal at the centre of the Monte resort. It was rebuilt in 1741–47 and consecrated in 1818, and Emperor Charles is buried there. The image of Nossa Senhora do Monte set out from it and returned to it in penitential processions.
- Funchal
City where the last rigorous penitential procession took place.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Levada
Funchal. Area crossed by the procession on its way back to Monte.
Area crossed by the procession on its way back to Monte.