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Cover of The Kongolese Saint Anthony

The Kongolese Saint Anthony

Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684-1706

By John K. Thornton

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Publish Date

1998

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Language

eng

Pages

228

Description:

This book describes the Christian religious movement led by Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita in the Kingdom of Kongo, from her birth in 1684 until her death, by burning at the stake, in 1706, only two years after the movement had started. Beatriz, a young woman, claimed to be possessed by Saint Anthony, argued that Jesus was a Kongolese, and criticized Italian Capuchin missionaries in her country for not supporting black saints. Thornton supplies background information on the Kingdom of Kongo, the development of Catholicism in Kongo since 1491, the nature and role of local warfare in the Atlantic slave trade, and contemporary everyday life, as well as sketching the lives of some local personalities.