Holy Spirit Sundays in the Azores

Holy Spirit Sundays-Domingas

After Easter here in the Azores, come the Holy Spirit functions or “Domingas, (Sunday functions). The Azoreans, like the microclimates existent in these islands, are by nature divisive and divergent in character, but they are united on this one deeply ingrained tradition and faith, which is their Holy Spirit Cult.“Impérios,” or “Empires” are what they call the various ceremonies that will take place for the next eight weeks and which entail the butchering of the Holy Spirit Feast cow, or ox on the Thursday or Friday before the actual function. On Sunday morning fireworks announce the time when participants must convene on a Holy Spirit cortege to the local church. Children and people who have pledged this function to the Holy Spirit carry silver crowns on their heads and are accompanied by other children bearing Holy Spirit banners that represent a dove surrounded by shiny silver rays.


After mass those carrying the crowns are consecrated to the Holy Spirit by the sprinkling of water and a prayer dispensed by the priest. The cortege occasionally accompanied by a philharmonic returns home for a communal meal called a “bodo.” This meal, after medieval tradition, was opened to the community in general. At one time it served the purpose of feeding the poor in town, but many opened it to anyone who came in to eat. Lately it is becoming more restricted. Only people who are invited can attend, although, courtesy has it that no one is ever denied a place at the table. A kind of communal Thanksgiving meal, the host makes provision to have plenty of food for everyone.

The meal itself consists of Holy Spirit soup, a meat soup, “alcatra” or beef stew. It is accompanied by wine, and possibly by sweet bread and sweet rice. The crown and the Holy Spirit banners themselves are displayed in a “throne room,” or where people may come in to view and to pray. As new Christians, and the majority of those of Jewish background practiced this tradition, the reverence given the Torah, the sacrifice sheep and other sacrificial utensils, is placed on all the Holy Spirit cult paraphernalia. So, the crown and banners, even the Holy Spirit oxen are rendered a special reverence as sacred symbols of the Holy Spirit Himself.After the “bodo” on Sunday afternoon, the whole congregation of people, praying and singing carries the crown and all the banners to the next host. The two groups meet at one point and exchange a shower of flowers in honor of the Holy Spirit. As one group, they convene in the home of the new host, where a throne room is waiting decorated for the occasion. Everyone gathers to pray and welcome the Holy Spirit insignia, the crown, banners and rods. There is celebration and a party afterwards.

The origins of this cult go back to medieval convictions that the coming of the Lord Holy Spirit was at hand. A monk by the name of Joaquin de Fiore is identified as the precursor of such cult. This belief was particularly spread by Franciscan monks, who were disciples of a certain Cistercian or Benedictine Order, established in 1089 at Citeaux, France.

They were convinced that a New Age of the empire of the Holy Spirit was on its way. It was an Age analogous to that of the Aquarius, where peace, brotherhood, true Christian, democratic harmony would take place. They foresaw a time when everyone would be sharing or coming together as one. With the Bubonic or Black Plague all around them, the arrival of the Portuguese at these no-man-lands, people by a sea of monsters and fears beyond their audacity, the more compelling was the drive to piety and good will. Armed with this cult, the new settlers faced the horrors of living on the edge and end of the world with added resiliency to whatever might have come their way. Stories are told of innumerous miracles of lava flows that spared whole towns and those places where the Holy Spirit Crowns or banners were present. They firmly believed that the Holy Spirit could tame the powers of nature and so equipped, they faced this strange and doomed world on the brink of Earth.

The Spanish born Portuguese queen Isabel influenced the cult by her devout faith in the Holy Spirit. It is said that at the church in Alenquer, where she, like all foreign born Portuguese queens had her private palace, imbued by the holiness of a Pentecostal celebration one year, dared what no European Queen had dared. She took her crown and knighted or crowned the poorest of the poor in the kingdom. Next to the chagrin of the noble and shock of her courtiers, she invited those same ragged people to join her at a court after mass festive dinner, the “bodo.”

Every year from then on, the Queen and King invited the poorest of the poorest for the Pentecostal crowning and their royal meal afterwards. If in England the Magna Carta guaranteed the common people a say before the King, in Portugal, through religious persuasion, the common people found a way to equal their kings, at least for eight weeks in the year. The cult became so popular, that the King and Queen invested certain “fidalgos” or squires among the people the privilege of becoming “mordomos,” head stewards of these ceremonies. They started being the ones in charge of the crowning and banquets after mass an the whole works.A feast of the people, by the people and for the people, it is a time when anyone can for a day become royalty. While this cult almost totally disappeared in continental Portugal, it faired well among the New Christians and people from all over Portugal that settled here, as well as with the foreign element among them i.e. Flemish and Bretons.Every year, therefore, for eight weeks after Easter, culminating with Pentecostal and Trinity Sundays, all of the Azores comes alive with Holy Spirit Functions or “Impérios.” They are all around us. If you hear late evening fireworks or early morning fireworks; and if you wake Sunday morning to a philharmonic band going by, know that the Azoreans are celebrating their “Domingas,” or Holy Spirit Sundays, a tradition that goes back about six hundred years and helped shape the Azorean character from Santa Maria to o Corvo.

Silvério Gabriel de MeloTerceira, Açores