Os benefícios da Eucaristia para a alimentação das almas no Brasil colonial

Abstract

During the 17th and 18th centuries, several ecclesiastical scholars who worked in Brazil, especially Jesuits, produced a series of writings of a moral, doctrinal or prescriptive nature - sermons, books of devotion, manuals for good death, manuals of confession, manuals for slave masters, synodal constitutions, spiritual regiments - which had as one of the main goals the care of the soul, highlighting the references to the Eucharist as a fundamental sacrament for the nourishment of Catholics’ spirit. In view of the importance that these edifying, instructive or prescriptive works had in the modern period and, especially, in colonial Brazil, to guide the souls and actions of the faithful towards a virtuous and morally good life, and the emphasis given to the Eucharist as appropriate food for the sustenance of souls and for the guarantee of good Catholic behavior, the purpose of the article will be to examine, in these writings, the main benefits of the body and blood of Jesus Christ for souls and how such benefits could be guaranteed by the faithful from the tropics.