Sola voce triumphat

Abstract

A rare manuscript kept in Torre do Tombo (Lisbon, Portugal) preserves the memory of several celebrations of the beatification of Ignatius of Loyola, which took place around the realms of the Spanish Habsburgs in 1609–11. Among these, there is the account of those organized in Goa in 1610, whose narrative reveals the cultural hybridization of European and Indian influences, in a nod to the local population to make readable the Jesuit message to a wider audience. Such Indian influences also reflected the origin of the craftsmen employed in constructing vehicles, decorations, and machines, whose cultural background conditioned the final result. The Jesuit narrative, however, depicted Indians either as props (used in procession for their exoticism) or as bystanders (as no one is individualized in the narrative, except key official figures invited by the Society to participate in the celebration).