Religion in Brazil - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Religion in Brazil has a higher adherence level compared to other Latin American countries, and is more diverse.

In 1891, when the first Brazilian Republican Constitution was set forth, Brazil ceased to have an official religion. The present Constitution (1988) guarantees absolute freedom of religion. Over seventy percent (73.8%) of the population declared themselves Roman Catholic in the last census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

(2000). However, there are many other religious denominations in Brazil. Some of these churches are the: Protestant, Pentecostal, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

. There are over a million and a half Spiritists or Kardescists who follow the doctrines of Allan Kardec. There are followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, small minorities of Jews, Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s, Buddhists, Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

, and numerous followers of Candomble and Umbanda.

Brazilian religions are very diversified and inclined to syncretism

Syncretism

Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

. In recent decades, there has been a great increase of Neo-Pentecostal churches, which has decreased the number of members to both the Roman Catholic Church and the Afro-Brazilian religions. About ninety percent of Brazilians declared some sort of religious affiliation in the most recent census.

Overview

Distribution of the Brazilian population according to their religions and faiths
Religion	Population (million)	Proportion (%)
Roman Catholicism	130	74%
Protestantism Protestantism Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...	25	15.4%
No religious affiliation	12	7.4%
Spiritism Spiritism Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...	2.2	1.3%
Afro-Brazilian Religions		0.3%
Other religions		1.7%

Catholicism

Brazil has the largest number of Catholics in the world. Roman Catholicism has been Brazil's main religion since the beginning of the 16th century. It was introduced among the Native Brazilians by Jesuits missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

and also observed by all the Portuguese first settlers.

During colonial times, there was no freedom of religion. All Portuguese settlers and Brazilians were compulsorily bound to the Roman Catholic faith and forced to pay taxes to the church. After the Brazilian independence, the first constitution introduced freedom of religion in 1824, but Roman Catholicism was kept as the official religion. The Imperial Government paid a salary to Catholic priests and influenced the appointment of bishops. The political-administrative division of the municipalities accompanied the hierarchical division of the bishoprics in "freguesias" (parishes). There was also some hindrances to the construction of temples and cemeteries that belonged to the Catholic Church. The first Republican Constitution in 1891 separated religion from state and made all religions equal in the Codes of Law, but the Catholic Church remained very influential until the 1970s. For example, due to the strong opposition of the Catholic Church, divorce was not allowed in Brazil until 1977 even if a separated couple observed a different religion.

The Catholicism practiced in Brazil is full of popular festivities rooted in centuries-old Portuguese traditions, but also heavily influenced by African and Native Brazilian usage. Popular traditions include pilgrimages to the National Shrine

Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida

The town of Aparecida, in the SE region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, houses two basilicas dedicated to Brazil's Patroness Saint, Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida, or "Our Lady of the Conception who Appeared," a reference to the appearance of the head, then the body of a statue of Mary in...

of Our Lady of Aparecida

Our Lady of Aparecida

Our Lady of Aparecida is the patron saint of Brazil, venerated in the Catholic Church. A dark-skinned Marian image, Our Lady of Aparecida is represented by a short, clay statue of the Virgin Mary, currently housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the town of...

(Nossa Senhora Aparecida), the patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

of Brazil, and religious festivals like the "Círio de Nazaré" in Belém

Belém

Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...

and the "Festa do Divino" in many cities of Central Brazil. Areas that received many European immigrants in the last century, specially Italian and German, have Catholic traditions closer to that practiced in Europe.

The largest proportion of Catholics is concentrated in the Northeast (79.9%) and South (77.4%) regions. The smallest proportion of Catholics is found in the Center-West region (69.1%). The State of Piauí

Piauí

Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...

has the largest proportion of Catholics (90.03%) and the State of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro (state)

Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...

has the smallest one (56.19%). Among the state capitals, Teresina

Teresina

Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. It is located in North-central Piauí 366 km from the coast.It is therefore, the only capital in the Northeast that is not located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. With 814 439 inhabitants, it is the 19th...

has the largest proportion of Catholics in the country (86.09%), followed by Aracaju

Aracaju

-Vegetation:Aracaju lies in tropical forest. Rainforests are characterized by high rainfall, with minimum normal annual rainfall between 2,000 mm and 1,700 mm...

, Fortaleza

Fortaleza

Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...

, Florianópolis

Florianópolis

-Climate:Florianópolis experiences a warm humid subtropical climate, falling just short of a true tropical climate. The seasons of the year are distinct, with a well-defined summer and winter, and characteristic weather for autumn and spring. Frost is infrequent, but occurs occasionally in the winter...

and João Pessoa

João Pessoa

João Pessoa , is the capital city of the state of Paraíba, was founded in 1585 and sometimes called the city where the sun rises first, is a Brazilian city and the easternmost city in the Americas at 34º47'38"W, 7º9'28"S. Local residents call its easternmost point Ponta do Seixas. It is also...

Protestantism

Brazil has many offshoots of Christianity. These include neo-Pentecostalists

Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...

, old Pentecostalists and Traditional Protestants (most of them Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists) predominantly from Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...

to the South. In the same region, mainly Minas Gerais and São Paulo, large sections of the middle class, about 1-2% of the total population, is Kardecist, sometimes pure, sometimes in syncretism

Syncretism

Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

with Roman Catholicism. The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, part of the Anglican Communion

Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...

, has some 120,000 members. Centers of neo-Pentecostalism are Londrina

Londrina

Londrina is a city located in the northern region of the state of Paraná, Brazil, and is 369 km away from the capital, Curitiba. Londrina was originally founded by British settlers. The city exerts great influence on Paraná and Brazil's south region...

in Paraná

Paraná (state)

Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

state, as well the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

(capital of Minas Gerais), especially the suburban and nearby areas of these cities. Lutherans are concentrated mostly in the states of Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...

, Santa Catarina

Santa Catarina (state)

Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...

and in countryside regions of the states of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

and Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity...

.

The largest proportion of Protestants is found in North (19.8%), Central-West (18.9%) and Southeast (17.5%) regions. Among the state capitals, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

has the largest proportion of non-Pentecostal Protestants in the country (10.07%), followed by Vitória, Porto Velho

Porto Velho

Porto Velho is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin. The population is estimated to be 426,558 people...

, Cuiabá

Cuiabá

Under the Koppen climate classification, Cuiaba features a tropical wet and dry climate. Cuiabá is famous for its searing heat, although temperatures in winter can arrive sporadically at 10 degrees, indeed atypical, caused by cold fronts coming from the south, and that may only last one or two...

and Manaus

Manaus

Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....

. But Goiânia

Goiânia

-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....

is the state capital with the largest proportion of Pentecostal Protestants in the country (20.41%), followed by Boa Vista

Boa Vista, Roraima

Boa Vista is the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima. Situated on the western bank of the River Branco, the city lies 220 km away from Brazil's border with Venezuela. It is the only Brazilian capital located entirely above the Equator...

, Porto Velho

Porto Velho

Porto Velho is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin. The population is estimated to be 426,558 people...

, Belém

Belém

Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...

and Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

Others

In 2011, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a membership of 1,138,740, with 1,925 congregations and 309 family history centers. The Church now also has 5 temples spread out across the nation, in Campinas, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Recife, and São Paulo, with additional temples under construction in Fortaleza and Manaus.

In 2010, Brazil had 733,475 Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

with 10,796 congregations and a ratio of 1 Witness to 262 residents.

The Eastern Orthodox Christian population is 500,000, composed of churches brought over by waves of Lebanese, Syrian, Armenian, Greek, Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in the past century.

African and Indigenous Religions

Afro-Brazilian religions are syncretic religions, such as Candomblé

Candomblé

Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...

, that have many followers, mainly Afro-Brazilian

Afro-Brazilian

In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...

s. They are concentrated mainly in large urban centers in the Northeast, such as Salvador, Recife

Recife

Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...

, or Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

in the Southeast. The cities of São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

and Florianópolis

Florianópolis

have a great number of followers, but in the South of Brazil the most common African influenced Ritual is Almas e Angola, which is an Umbanda

Umbanda

Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....

like ritual. Nowadays, there are over 70 "Terreiros" in Florianópolis, which are the places where the rituals run. In addition to Candomblé which is the survival of West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

n religion, there is also Umbanda which blends Spiritism

Spiritism

Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...

, Indigenous and African beliefs. There is prejudice about "African cults" in Brazil's south, but there are Catholics, Protestants and other kinds of Christians who also believe in the Orisha

Orisha

An Orisha is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system....

s, and go both to Churches and Terreiros.

Candomblé, Umbanda, Batuque, Xango

Xango

Xango may refer to:* XanGo, a company based in Utah that markets a beverage, XanGo juice* Shango, one of the key orishas of Yoruba mythology, and the name of an Afro-Brazilian religion * Xangô, a brazilian song by Luís Bonfá...

, and Tambor de Mina, were originally brought by black slaves

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

shipped from Africa to Brazil. These black slaves would summon their gods, called Orixas

Orisha

An Orisha is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system....

, Voduns or Inkices with chants and dances they had brought from Africa. These cults were persecuted throughout most of Brazilian history, largely because they were believed to be pagan

Paganism

Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

or even satanic

Satanism

Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...

. However, the Brazilian republic

Republic

A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

an government legalized all of them on the grounds of the necessary separation between the State and the Church in 1889.

In current practice, Umbanda followers leave offerings of food, candles and flowers in public places for the spirits. Candomblé terreiros are more hidden from general view, except in famous festivals such as Iyemanja Festival and the Waters of Oxala in the Northeast.

From Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

northwards there are different practices such as Catimbo, Jurema with heavy Indigenous elements. All over the country, but mainly in the Amazon rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

, there are many Indians still practicing their original traditions. Many of their beliefs and use of naturally occurring plant derivatives are incorporated into African, Spirtitualists and folk religion.

Other Religions

There are small populations of people professing Judaism (186,000), Islam

Islam in Brazil

Islam in Brazil was first practiced by African slaves. The early Brazilian Muslims led the largest slave revolt in Brazil, which then had the largest slave population of the world. The next significant migration of Muslims was by Arabs from Syria and Lebanon...

(150,000), Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

(215,000), Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

, Rastafarian

Rastafari movement

The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...

and a few other religions. They comprise 20th century immigrants

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

from East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

, the Middle East and Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

, or of recent immigrant descent.

Seven percent of the population consider themselves agnostics or atheists. One of the most unusual features of the rich Brazilian spiritual landscape are the sects which use ayahuasca

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of dimethyltryptamine-containing species of shrubs from the Psychotria genus...

(an Amazonian entheogen

Entheogen

An entheogen , in the strict sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts...

ic tea), including Santo Daime

Santo Daime

Santo Daime is a syncretic spiritual practice founded in the 1930s in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre by Raimundo Irineu Serra, known as Mestre Irineu...

, União do Vegetal

União do Vegetal

União do Vegetal is a Christian religion based on the use of Hoasca in a program of spiritual evolution based on mental concentration and the search for self-knowledge...

, and Centro de Cultura Cósmica.

This syncretism, coupled with ideas prevalent during the military dicatorship, has resulted in a church for the secular, based on philosopher Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...

's principles of positivism

Positivism

Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

, based at the Positivist Church of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.

Buddhism

Buddhism is probably the largest of all minority religions, with about 215,000 followers. This is mostly because of the large Japanese Brazilian community. About a fifth of the Japanese Brazilian community are followers of Buddhism. Japanese Buddhist sects like Nichiren Buddhism

Nichiren Buddhism

Nichiren Buddhism is a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th century Japanese monk Nichiren...

(most notably the Soka Gakkai), Jodo Shinshu

Jodo Shinshu

, also known as Shin Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Today, Shin Buddhism is considered the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.-Shinran :...

and Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

are the most popular. However in recent years both Chinese Mahayana and South East Asian Theraveda sects are gaining popularity. Buddhism was introduced to Brazil in the early twentieth century, by Japanese immigrants, although now, 60% of Japanese Brazilians are now Christian due to missionary activities and intermarriage. Nevertheless, Japanese Brazilian culture has a substantial Buddhist influence.

Judaism

The first Jews arrived in Brazil as cristãos-novos (New Christians) or conversos, names applied to Jews or Muslims who converted to Catholicism, most of them forcibly. According to the Inquisition

Inquisition

The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...

reports, many New Christians living in Brazil during colonial times were condemned for secretly observing Jewish customs

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

. These reports may not be reliable since the Inquisition confiscated the earthly goods of its victims, and had a direct interest in denouncing and convicting them.

In 1630, the Dutch conquered portions of northeast Brazil and permitted the open practice of any religion. Many Jews came from the Netherlands to live in Brazil in the area dominated by the Dutch. Most of them were descendants of the Portuguese Jews who had been expelled from Portugal in 1497. In 1636, the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue

Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue

Kahal Zur Israel , located in Recife, Brazil, was the first Jewish congregation in the New World. It was established by immigrants from the Netherlands and joined by New Christians who were already living in the colony. There is now a museum on this site of the oldest synagogue site in the...

, the first synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

in the Americas was built in Recife

Recife

, the capital of Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654...

. The original building remains to this day, but the Jews were forced to leave Brazil when the Portuguese-Brazilians retook the land in 1654.

The first Jews that stayed in Brazil and openly practiced their religion came when the first Brazilian constitution granted freedom of religion in 1824, just after the independence. They were mainly Moroccan Jews, descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497.

The first wave of Sephardic Jews was exceeded by the larger wave of immigration by Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...

that came at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, mainly from Russia, Poland, Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

and Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. A final significant group came, fleeing Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

or the destruction that followed World War II.

There are about 196,000 Jews in Brazil. The largest proportion of Jews is found in the states of São Paulo

São Paulo (state)

São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

and Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro (state)

Islam

According to the 2000 Census, there were 27,239 Muslims

Islam in Brazil

in Brazil.
Islam in Brazil

Islam in Brazil

may be presumed to have first been practiced by African slaves brought from West Africa. Scholars note that Brazil received more enslaved Muslims than anywhere else in the Americas. During Ramadan

Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

, in January 1835, a small group of black slaves and freedmen from Salvador da Bahia, inspired by Muslim

Muslim

teachers, rose up against the government in the Malê Revolt

Male Revolt

The Malê Revolt is perhaps the most significant slave rebellion in Brazil. On a Sunday during Ramadan in January 1835, in the city of Salvador da Bahia, a small group of black slaves and freedmen, inspired by Muslim teachers, rose up against the government...

, the largest slave rebellion

Slave rebellion

A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by slaves. Slave rebellions have occurred in nearly all societies that practice slavery, and are amongst the most feared events for slaveholders...

in Brazil. (Muslims were called malê in Bahia

Bahia

at this time, from Yoruba

Yoruba language

Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...

imale that designated a Yoruba

Yoruba people

The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...

Muslim.) Fearing the example might be followed, the Brazilian authorities began to watch the malês very carefully and in subsequent years intensive efforts were made to force conversions to Catholicism and erase the popular memory of and affection towards Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. However, the African Muslim community was not erased overnight, and as late as 1910 it is estimated there were still some 100,000 African Muslims living in Brazil.

A recent trend has been the increase in conversions to Islam among non-Arab citizens. A recent Muslim source estimated that there are close to 10,000 Muslim converts living in Brazil. Muslim community leaders in Brazil estimated that there were between 70,000 and 300,000 Muslims, with the lower figure representing those who actively practiced their religion, while the higher estimate would include also nominal members.

Hinduism

Most of the Brazilian Hindus are ethnic East India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

ns.

There are 1,500 PIOs (People of Indian origin) and about 400 NRIs (Non Resident Indian) in Brazil.

First wave of Immigration-
A small number of Sindhis had arrived here from Suriname and Central America in 1960 to set up shop as traders in the city of Manaus

Manaus

.

Second wave of Immigration
Consisted of university professors who arrived in the 1960s and also in the 1970s.

Other PIOs migrated to this country from various African countries, mainly from former Portuguese colonies (especially Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

), soon after their independence in the 1970s. The number of PIOs in Brazil has been augmented in recent years by the arrival of nuclear scientists and computer professionals.

There are as many as 1,500 PIOs among the Indian community in Brazil, and only 400 NRIs, since foreign nationals can acquire local citizenship without any discrimination after 15 years of domicile in this country. Brazil has also no bar against dual citizenship. But in recent years, it has been granting immigration visas only in high technology fields. The only exceptions are the Sindhis

Sindhi people

Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...

in Manaus (who have formed an Indian Association with about a hundred members) and the Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

ns in São Paulo.

Beliefs

A 2007 poll, made by Datafolha and published in newspaper Folha de S. Paulo

Folha de S. Paulo

Folha de S. Paulo, known simply as Folha , is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded and continuously published in São Paulo since 19 February 1921. Owned by the Frias de Oliveira family since 1962, it has Brazil's largest circulation since 1986. Alongside O Globo and O Estado de S...

, asked diverse questions about the beliefs of the Brazilian people. In this poll, 64% reported to be Catholics, 17% Pentecostal Protestants, 5% non-Pentecostal Protestants, 3% Kardecists or Spiritists, 3% followers of other religions, 7% non-religious or atheists. Less than 1% reported to follow Afro-Brazilian religions.

Belief in God and the Devil

Devil

The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...

97% Of Brazilians reported to believe in God; 2% have doubts and 1% do not believe in God.
75% Reported to believe in the Devil, 9% have doubts and 15% do not believe in the Devil.
81% Of non-religious reported to believe in God.

About Jesus Christ:

93% Reported they believe Jesus Christ rose after death; 92% that the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...

exists; 87% in the occurrence of miracles; 86% that Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

gave birth to Jesus as a virgin; 77% that Jesus will return to Earth at the end of time; 65% that the sacramental bread
Sacramental bread
Sacramental bread, sometimes called the lamb, altar bread, host or simply Communion bread, is the bread which is used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist.-Eastern Catholic and Orthodox:...

is the body of Jesus; 64% that after death some people go to Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

; 58% that after death some people go to Hell and 60% that there is life after death.

Belief in saints

57% Believe there are saints.
49% Pray for the intercession of a saint (68% among self-declared Catholics).
18% Pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida
Our Lady of Aparecida
Our Lady of Aparecida is the patron saint of Brazil, venerated in the Catholic Church. A dark-skinned Marian image, Our Lady of Aparecida is represented by a short, clay statue of the Virgin Mary, currently housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the town of...

(26% among Catholics); Saint Anthony
Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...

, Saint Expeditus (5% each), Saint George
Saint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...

(3%), Saint Jude
Saint Jude
Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Jude of James, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus...

, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....

(2% each).

About the Catholic priests

51% Believe some priests respect chastity
Chastity
Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....

, 31% most, 8% none and 4% they all do.
66% That priests should be allowed to marry (59% among Catholics and 94% among followers of Candomblé).
About the sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...

scandal
Scandal
A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...

s involving priests, 38% believe some of the complaints are true, 30% most are, 21% all are and 4% none of them.

About different religions

About the sentence "Catholics do not practice their religion", 19% reported to agree completely and 41% agreed, but not completely.
About the sentence "the Protestants are misled by their priests", 61% agreed (77% among the Kardecists, 67% among Catholics and 45% among Protestants).
About the sentence "Umbanda is a Devil thing", 57% agreed (83% among Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

Protestants, 53% among Catholics and 12% among Umbandists).
About the sentence "Jews only think about money", 49% agreed.
About the sentence "Muslims advocate terrorism", 49% agreed.

Table of Religions in Brazil

**Distribution of the Brazilian population according to their religions and faiths** (data from the demographic census of 2000)
Some rows in the table that show "(total)" are actually sub-totals of subsequent rows, which are lighter and marked with a dot ( . ) at left. The faiths and groups of faiths are organized by descending number of followers.
Religion or faith			Total		"by region"				"by gender"
			Total		urban		rural		men		women
			contingent	%	contingent	%	contingent	%	contingent	%	contingent	%
(total)			169.872.856	100,00	137.925.238	100,00	31.947.618	100,00	83.602.317	100,00	86.270.539	100,00
Roman Catholics (total)			125.518.774	73,89	98.939.872	71,73	26.578.903	83,20	62.171.584	74,37	63.347.189	73,43
·	Roman Catholic Church		124.980.132	73,57	98.475.959	71,40	26.504.174	82,96	61.901.888	74,04	63.078.244	73,12
·	Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church is an independent Catholic church established in 1945 by Brazilian bishop Dom Carlos Duarte Costa, a former Roman Catholic Bishop of Botucatu.The ICAB has 58 dioceses and claims five million members in 17 countries...		500.582	0,295	430.245	0,312	70.337	0,220	250.201	0,299	250.380	0,290
Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...			38.060	0,022	33.668	0,024	4.392	0,014	19.495	0,023	18.565	0,022
Protestant Churches Protestantism Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the... (total)			26.184.941	15,41	22.736.910	16,48	3.448.031	10,79	11.444.063	13,69	14.740.878	17,09
·	Missionaries - traditional Protestantism (total)		6.939.765	4,085	6.008.100	4,356	931.665	2,916	3.062.194	3,663	3.877.571	4,495
·	·	Baptist	3.162.691	1,862	2.912.163	2,111	250.528	0,784	1.344.946	1,609	1.817.745	2,107
·	·	Seventh-day Adventist Church Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...	1.209.842	0,712	1.029.949	0,747	179.893	0,563	538.981	0,645	670.860	0,778
·	·	Lutheran Church	1.062.145	0,625	681.345	0,494	380.800	1,192	523.994	0,627	538.152	0,624
·	·	Presbyterian Presbyterianism Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...	981.064	0,578	904.552	0,656	76.512	0,239	427.458	0,511	553.606	0,642
·	·	Methodist Church	340.963	0,201	325.342	0,236	15.620	0,049	146.236	0,175	194.727	0,226
·	·	Congregational	148.836	0,088	125.117	0,091	23.719	0,074	64.937	0,078	83.899	0,097
·	·	other	34.224	0,020	29.630	0,021	4.593	0,014	15.642	0,019	18.582	0,022
·	Pentecostal (total)		17.617.307	10,37	15.256.085	11,06	2.361.222	7,391	7.677.125	9,183	9.940.182	11,52
·	·	Assembly of God	8.418.140	4,956	6.857.429	4,972	1.560.711	4,885	3.804.658	4,551	4.613.482	5,348
·	·	Christian Congregation of Brazil Christian Congregation of Brazil The Christian Congregation in Brazil is an evangelical denomination founded in that country by the Italian-American missionary Luigi Francescon .-History:...	2.489.113	1,465	2.148.941	1,558	340.172	1,065	1.130.329	1,352	1.358.785	1,575
·	·	Universal Church of the Kingdom of God Universal Church of the Kingdom of God Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is a Pentecostal Christian organisation established in Brazil on July 9, 1977, with a presence in many countries...	2.101.887	1,237	1.993.488	1,445	108.399	0,339	800.227	0,957	1.301.660	1,509
·	·	International Church of the Foursquare Gospel International Church of the Foursquare Gospel The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, commonly referred to as the Foursquare Church, is an evangelical Pentecostal Christian denomination. As of 2000 it had a worldwide membership of over 8,000,000, with almost 60,000 churches in 144 countries. In 2006, membership in the United States...	1.318.805	0,776	1.253.276	0,909	65.529	0,205.5214	545.016	0,6526445	773.789	0,897
·	·	God is Love Pentecostal Church God is Love Pentecostal Church The God is Love Pentecostal Church or Igreja Pentecostal Deus é Amor is a Brazilian-based Pentecostal denomination. It is considered part of the second wave of Pentecostalism in Brazil....	774.830	0,456	649.252	0,471	125.577	0,393	331.707	0,397	443.123	0,514
·	·	Igreja Cristã Maranata	277.342	0,163	266.539	0,193	10.803	0,034	117.789	0,141	159.553	0,185
·	·	Brazil for Christ Pentecostal Church Brazil for Christ Pentecostal Church The Brazil for Christ Pentecostal Church is an indigenous Pentecostal denomination founded in Brazil in the 1950s....	175.618	0,103	159.713	0,116	15.904	0,050	76.132	0,091	99.485	0,115
·	·	Igreja Tabernáculo Evangélico de Jesus	128.676	0,076	120.891	0,088	7.785	0,024	51.557	0,062	77.119	0,089
·	·	Igreja Cristã de Nova Vida	92.315	0,054	91.008	0,066	1.307	0,004	35.352	0,042	56.964	0,066
·	·	Other	1.840.581	1,084	1.715.548	1,244	125.033	0,391	784.359	0,938	1.056.222	1,224
·	no institutional links (total)		1.046.487	0,616	945.874	0,686	100.612	0,315	454.087	0,543	592.400	0,687
·	·	Pentecostal	336.259	0,198	305.734	0,222	30.525	0,096	144.707	0,173	191.552	0,222
·	·	Other	710.227	0,418	640.140	0,464	70.087	0,219	309.380	0,370	400.847	0,465
·	Other evangelical		581.383	0,342	526.850	0,382	54.532	0,171	250.657	0,300	330.725	0,383
Kardecist Spiritism			2.262.401	1,332	2.206.418	1,600	55.983	0,175	928.967	1,111	1.333.434	1,546
Other Christian (total)			1.540.064	0,907	1.441.888	1,045	98.175	0,307	646.264	0,773	893.800	1,036
·	Latter-day Saints (Mormons)		1.104.886	0,650	1.045.600	0,758	59.286	0,186	450.583	0,539	654.303	0,758
·	Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...		199.645	0,118	195.198	0,142	4.446	0,014	92.197	0,110	107.448	0,125
·	Other		235.533	0,139	201.090	0,146	34.443	0,108	103.484	0,124	132.049	0,153
Umbanda Umbanda Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....			397.431	0,234	385.148	0,279	12.283	0,038	172.393	0,206	225.038	0,261
Buddhism Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...			214.873	0,126	203.772	0,148	11.101	0,035	96.722	0,116	118.152	0,137
New Eastern Religions (total)			151.080	0,089	145.914	0,106	5.166	0,016	58.784	0,070	92.295	0,107
·	Church of World Messianity Church of World Messianity The Church of World Messianity , abbreviated COWM, is a "new religion" founded in 1935 by Mokichi Okada. The religion's key concept is Johrei, claimed to be a method of channeling divine light into the body of another for the purposes of healing...		109.310	0,064	106.467	0,077	2.843	0,009	41.478	0,050	67.831	0,079
·	Other		41.770	0,025	39.447	0,029	2.323	0,007	17.306	0,021	24.464	0,028
Candomblé Candomblé Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...			127.582	0,075	123.214	0,089	4.368	0,014	57.200	0,068	70.382	0,082
Jews			86.825	0,051	86.316	0,063	509	0,002	43.597	0,052	43.228	0,050
Esoteric Traditions			58.445	0,034	55.693	0,040	2.752	0,009	27.637	0,033	30.808	0,036
Islam Islam Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~... ic			27.239	0,016	27.055	0,020	183	0,001	16.232	0,019	11.007	0,013
Spiritism Spiritism Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...			25.889	0,015	24.507	0,018	1.382	0,004	10.901	0,013	14.987	0,017
Native Brazilian Traditions			17.088	0,010	6.463	0,005	10.625	0,033	9.175	0,011	7.913	0,009
Hinduism Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...			2.905	0,002	2.861	0,002	43	0,000	1.521	0,002	1.383	0,002
Other religions			15.484	0,009	13.243	0,010	2.241	0,007	7.393	0,009	8.091	0,009
Other Eastern Religions			7.832	0,005	7.244	0,005	588	0,002	3.764	0,005	4.068	0,005
No religion			12.492.403	7,354	10.895.989	7,900	1.596.414	4,997	7.540.682	9,020	4.951.721	5,740
No declaration			383.953	0,226	312.011	0,226	71.943	0,225	206.245	0,247	177.708	0,206
Undetermined			357.648	0,211	310.720	0,225	46.929	0,147	159.191	0,190	198.458	0,230

Overview

Catholicism

Protestantism

Others

African and Indigenous Religions

Other Religions

Buddhism

Judaism

Islam

Hinduism

Beliefs

Table of Religions in Brazil

See also