São Salvador da Bahia, Archdiocese of

SÃO SALVADOR DA BAHIA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in the State of Bahia, Brazil. It is the primatial see of the country and the metropolis of the ecclesiastical province of S. Salvador, which includes the bishoprics of Barra do Rio Grande, Caetité, Ilhéus, Bonfim and Amargosa. The archdiocese has approximately 57,297 sq km, with a population of 1,471,905 inhabitants, of whom 1,138,563 are Catholics distributed in 103 parishes, served by 91 diocesan priests and 158 regulars; it has two seminaries; 18 male religious communities and 40 female. The patron is St. Francis Xavier; feast day December 3.

The city of Salvador is at 12° 55' 48'' south latitude, 38° 01' 06'' west longitude of Greenwich, and has 380,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the State government, a commercial, intellectual, political and military center, an outlet for the export of the region's products, which is rich in cocoa, coconut, oranges, and cereals, and a port of call for several Brazilian, American and European shipping lines. The city is clearly divided into lower and upper, that is, the commercial zone as opposed to the residential and administrative one. Despite urban planning changes, Salvador is the Brazilian capital that best preserves its colonial lines.

HISTORY

The Portuguese crown, having regained the region from the feudal lord, founded the city of Salvador on the Bay of All Saints, in order to establish there the seat of the central government of Brazil. With the first governor disembarked the first Jesuits that the New World saw (29 March 1549). Forty years later the city already counted 800 families and was establishing itself as a great commercial emporium, owing to the exportation of sugar. This progress then suffered no interruption, thanks to the presence of the governors. Nevertheless, in 1624, the city fell prey to the Dutch, who, as soon as they had established themselves within its walls, were driven out by the arrival of powerful forces coming from Portugal and Spain. A new attack and withdrawal of the Dutch occurred in 1638, after which, with few exceptions, the city was able to enjoy a long period of tranquillity. But in 1763 it had to transmit to Rio de Janeiro the prerogatives it had received in 1715 as capital of the viceroyalty of Brazil, which marked its colonial political decline, although it retained a great religious and intellectual influence. Salvador was the last stronghold of the Portuguese reaction against Brazilian independence, which was consecrated as victorious in the battle of 2 July 1823.

Pope Julius III, with the bull Super specula militantis Ecclesiae of 25 February 1551, elevated Salvador to a diocese, subjecting it to the metropolis of Lisbon. During this period it had the following bishops: Pedro Fernandes Sardinha (1551-56); Pedro Leitão (1559-73); Antonio Barreiros (1575-96); Constantino Barradas (1603-17); Marco Texeira (famous for the defense of the city against the Flemish, 1622-24); Miguel Pereira (did not reach the diocese, 1629-30); Pedro da Silva Sampaio (1634-49); Estevão dos Santos (1672). Innocent XI, with the bull Inter pastorali officii curat, of 16 November 1676, constituted an ecclesiastical province with its metropolis at Salvador, which, besides the dioceses of Rio and Olinda, then erected, embraced those African ones of S. Tomé and Angola. The archdiocese was from then on governed by the following pastors: Gaspar Barata de Mendonça (1677, governed by means of delegates); João da Madre de Deus (1683-86); Manuel da Resurreição (1688-91); João Francisco de Oliveira (1697-1700); Sebastião Monteiro da Vide (convened a provincial Synod [1707] that fixed the canonical rules in the colony, 1702-22); José Fialho (1739); José Botelho de Matos (1741-60, when he was dismissed for having refused to proceed with the suspension of the Jesuits ordered by Pombal); Manuel de Sta. Inez (1771); Joaquim Borges de Figueroa (1773-78); Antonio di S. José (1779); Antonio Correia (1781-1802); José de Sta. Escolastica (1803-14); Francisco de S. Damaso Abreu Vieira (founded the Seminary and was the first to assume the title of primate of Brazil, 1815-16); Vicente da Soledade (1820-23); Romualdo Antonio de Seixas (a great politician, 1828-60); Manuel Joaquim da Silveira (1861-74); Joaquim Gonçalves de Azevedo (1874-79); Luiz Antonio dos Santos (1880-89); Antonio Macedo Costa (1889-90); Jeronimo Tomé da Silva (1891-1924); Augusto Alvaro da Silva (1925).

In the archdiocese are famous the Benedictine abbey of Mosteiro S. Bento, founded in 1581; the convent and church of S. Francesco, famous for its gilding and artistic treasures. As works of colonial art (v. BRASILE, III. Arte sacra) one should recall almost all the ancient churches of the city, and particularly those of Conceição da Praia, Graça and Vitoria, where wooden sculptures abound, always in the Portuguese baroque taste; nor can one forget the religious Museum preserved in the Cathedral.

Maurilio Cesar de Lima