"Territory of precious stones of excellent virtue": the formation of kinship nuclei in the Monastery of Santa Monica of Goa (1606 – 1636)
Orient, Santa Monica, Goa, Female Religiosity, Monastery
The Monastery of Santa Monica was founded in 1606 by the then Governor of India and Archbishop of Goa, Frei Aleixo de Meneses (1595-1610), under the protection of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine. The institution was the first convent of nuns of the India, consecrated for being a space of maintenance and perpetuation of the ideal model of feminine Catholic virtue and of the religious traditions of the Christianity about the woman, proposed in Trento. In the first three decades, the monastery received a considerable number of women from the same family, seeking a life of seclusion and spiritual dedication. These professions together call attention to the enclosure space as an extension of family relationships. In this sense, the present research is searching to analyze the formation of these family nuclei and to understand the hierarchical system of the monastery in the extension of the organic meanings of social of social stratification, prevalent in the Luso-Indian s