Between prayers and esconjuros

In March 1907, in the town of Alegria, in Palmas-PR, the accused Custodio Ferreira Soares (alias Monge Anjo Custódio) and Manoel Antonio Ferreira burned the bodies of the women Ignácia Trindade and Eogenia Maria Balbina, as well as three other children. In addition to the bonfire, the accused beat Eogenia with quince poles and tatú tails, and using a handkerchief, they asphyxiated her to death, holding an open-air wake for the local community only. The incident led to a criminal case resulting from a practice of exorcism, which became the documentary basis for this work, which uses the criminal case as a source of research along with journalistic clippings from the written press that commented on what happened. Through micro-history, micro-analysis and the cross-referencing of sources, a dialogue was promoted on the context of the region, the daily lives of those involved and the religious experiences lived. Popular religiosity is thus included as a major theme and the general aim of the research is to analyse aspects of popular religiosity experienced by parts of the local population at a time when the Catholic Church was investing in Romanisation.