Manaus Agile Amazonas tourism and culturePoor Devil's Chapel
Privately owned, its origin has several versions. Here, we adopted the one found in the Diário Oficial do Estado, of June 11, 1927.
In 1875, the Portuguese Antônio José da Costa came to live in Manaus, at Rua da Instalação, Downtown, where he set up the Costa & Souza business with José Joaquim de Souza Júnior. A devotee of Saint Anthony, the merchant reserved a space on one of the shelves of his commercial establishment to place an image of Saint Anthony, purchased in Belém.
At the end of each working day, before closing his trade, Costa would pray the following phrase: "My Saint Anthony, protect this poor devil." Possibly, this is the reason why the Portuguese was nicknamed as Poor Devil.
In 1878, Costa ended his partnership with Souza and took the image of his patron saint with him. Soon afterwards, the Portuguese set up a new establishment called O Pobre Diabo (The Poor Devil), alluding to his nickname.
After several years on Rua da Instalação, the Portuguese moved to the neighborhood of Cachoeirinha, where he acquired, in 1896, a piece of land near the Floriano Peixoto square, now extinct, between Santa Isabel and Canutama streets, today Ipixuna. A chapel in honor of the Saint was built there.
On October 28, 1897, Cordolina Rosa de Viterbo, wife of the merchant, gave this chapel to the Diocese of Manaus for the worship of St. Anthony of Lisbon, however, with the condition that, in life, she would be the janitor of the temple.
With four meters in front and eight meters in back, the Chapel was built all in brick and stone, tiled with mosaics. Its blessing was held on June 13, 1901, by the then diocesan bishop José Lourenço da Costa Aguiar. Only two decades later, in 1922, that this hermitage would receive its first restoration.
Through Law 8, of June 28, 1965, approved by the State Legislative Assembly, the Chapel of Santo Antônio do Pobre Diabo was declared a Historical Monument (D.O.E., June 30 of that same year). More than twenty years later, this law was reinforced by State Decree 11.036, of April 12, 1988. In the following decade, in 1997, the small church was restored again.
Located on Borba Street, Cachoeirinha neighborhood, South Zone of Manaus, nowadays this Chapel opens its doors only for tourists and during the celebrations of St. Anthony's Day, on June 13. On this day, a ceremony is held to bless the bread - by the vicar of the Parish of Santa Rita de Cássia - which is offered to the community.
❱ Address: Rua Borba, 450, Cachoeirinha - Manaus - AM, Brazil - Zip Code: 69065-110
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