1 - The Emergence of Black Saints

Summary

In 1618, Philip III, king of both Spain and Portugal, arrived in Lisbon as part of a royal visit throughout his kingdoms. During his stay in Lisbon, the city observed one of its most important feast days. Feast days were festivals celebrated throughout the Catholic world with the highest degree of sumptuousness, including processions that traversed the major thoroughfares of the city, elaborate decorations, games, poetry contests, and fireworks. Accounts of this particular feast were repeated throughout the Hispanic world and included one striking feature: a description of black members of a confraternity, free and enslaved, who participated in the procession, carrying with them several devotional images, including those of several black saints. Subsequent hagiographers described the black confraternal members as having “brilliant simplicity and sincere piety,” carrying the standard of St. Benedict of Palermo, who was “their special patron and protector.” This festival marked an early period of devotion to black saints in Lisbon, which persisted for well over a century. In the middle of the eighteenth century, another visitor to the city, the British traveler William Beckford, witnessed a feast in honor of Portugal’s patron saint, Anthony of Padua.