FAITH AND POWER

THE DUTCH PRESENCE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARTYRDOM IN CUNHAÚ AND URUAÇU

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze Dutch expansion and presence in northern Brazil, especially in Rio Grande (do Norte), considering its economic, social, and religious aspects, as well as its relationship with the indigenous peoples in what was then the captaincy of Rio Grande. These actions, driven by the Catholic Action movement in the figures of Monsignor Paulo Herôncio and Monsignor Assis Pereira, constructed a narrative of “martyrdom” and “hatred of the faith” to foster a local Catholic identity and justify the process of canonization of the victims. In contrast, the analysis suggests that the real motivations were more complex, involving economic tensions, territorial disputes, and pragmatic alliances between the Dutch and indigenous peoples, opposing the simplistic view of religious persecution. Finally, the text demonstrates how this construction of memory and sacralization of space was used as an instrument of symbolic unity and resistance to Dutch and indigenous otherness. The objective is to understand the context of the events involving the Dutch and what happened in the then captaincy, tracing the narratives propagated by regional historiography, whose main contribution revolved around the narrative of the formation of a local Catholic identity shrouded in “martyrdom,” as well as the action of the Church through the mechanisms that the Catholic Action movement and the religious class provided, carrying out the process of canonization of the martyrs of Cunhaú and Uruaçu.