MANUEL TEIXEIRA, A HISTORIOGRAFIA SOBRE S. FRANCISCO XAVIER E O TEMA DA CHEGADA DO SEU CORPO A GOA文德泉，有關聖方濟各，沙勿略和其遺體送至果阿為題之歷史編纂學
José Manuel Garcia’s article examines the Portuguese historiography produced on St. Francis Xavier, and in particular the theme of the arrival and reception of his body in Goa on 16 March 1554. The central hypothesis is that the memory of the translation—often presented as an exemplary devotional ev...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
July 2006
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40019/3750 |
| Summary: | José Manuel Garcia’s article examines the Portuguese historiography produced on St. Francis Xavier, and in particular the theme of the arrival and reception of his body in Goa on 16 March 1554. The central hypothesis is that the memory of the translation—often presented as an exemplary devotional event—was reconfigured over time by narrative strategies and by disputes over authority in the writing of the saint’s “holy memory.” The author proposes a historical-hermeneutic approach, examining the conditions of enunciation of the accounts, the circulation of testimonies, and the manner in which certain elements (welcoming rituals, description of the bodily state, mediation by colonial and Jesuit authorities) were mobilised to sustain competing visions of the mission.
Based on a critical reading of historiographical texts connected to Xavier’s universe and to later phases of the Society, the study highlights continuities and inflections between models of sanctity and needs for institutional legitimation, culminating in a growing elaboration of the episode as part of a broader narrative of spiritual conquest. It concludes that the “body in transit” in Goa functions less as a simple repository of facticity and more as a cultural construction, where devotion, missionary policy, and historiographical work are articulated to produce a normatively desirable memory. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |