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Historical data of the Parish
The History of the Parish of Saint Raymond Nonato begins
with the Bishop Dom Santino Maria da Silva Coutinho. In the year of
1916 he bought a piece of land in the section known as São João do Bruno. Since June 19, 1915 Vincentian fellow members founded a Conference in that section, to assist the poor people who lived in the outskirts of the city.
Dom Santino ordered the construction of a new
Chapel, nowadays known as the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal. On September 3,
1916 he blessed the cornerstone and decided that the Chapel had to be
consecrated to Saint Raymond Nonato. This one was a member of the Order of the "Mercedários", whose priests had contributed so much
to the evangelization of the State of Pará in Northern Brazil at the time of the conquest and settlement.
On April 25, 1917, Dom Santino celebrated the first
Mass in the new Chapel. By the decree of July 10, 1917, he
created the Parish of Saint Raymond Nonato, giving provision to the
diocesan priest Faustino Jorge de Carvalho.
The new Parish was separated from the Parish of Nazareth.
Father Faustino was vicar up to 1926. On February 24 of the
same year Dom Irineu nominated the salvatorian priest, Raccaioli, as second vicar.
The Parish of Saint Raymond Nonato was entrusted, after the leaving
of the vicar, to the Vincentian Fathers. Father Luis Gussenhoven C.M. arrived in Belém in 1930 to organize the Parish. On February 13, 1935 the Daughters of Charity arrived in Belém to
work in the Parish.
In 1937, already having bought land
for the actual parish/church, a great campaign began, really very well
organized by the parishioners, to raise funds for the
construction of the church. One year later the Archbishop Dom Antonio
Lustosa blessed the cornerstone of the new church, constructed
under the supervision of the architect A. Guimarães. On September 10, 1940 the last Masses in the old chapel were celebrated, this means in the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal, at 5:00 AM
and 6:30 AM,and then at 8:00 AM a procession of numerous devoted
parishioners of Saint Raymond Nonato took the image of the patron saint
to the new church.
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