Brazil, with its 8.5 million km², is almost three hundred times larger than Belgium — the fifth-largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, China, and the United States). The country has a population of 217 million people, about eighteen times that of Belgium.
Why such rapid growth (1890–1930)? Major waves of immigration — mainly Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Germans, and later also Japanese (from 1908 onwards). The abolition of slavery in 1888 formally integrated millions of freed people into the national population. Meanwhile, the expansion of agricultural frontiers (coffee in the southeast, rubber in the Amazon) and the rise of early industrial centers (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro) fueled economic and demographic growth.
Between roughly 1880 and 1930, Brazil’s population increased from about 12–13 million to ~35 million — a threefold rise within half a century.
When did Brazil become a colony?
In 1500, the Portuguese under Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed the land — marking the beginning of Colonial Brazil (1500–1815). The first capital was later established at Salvador (1549), and from 1763 onward, Rio de Janeiro became the capital.
How many people lived there at the time?
Around 1500, there were no official counts; historians estimate the Indigenous population at roughly 2–3 million before European diseases and colonization caused a severe demographic decline.
For reference, the first national census took place in 1872, recording 9.93 million inhabitants (by then Brazil was no longer a colony but an empire).
How much poverty existed, and why?
No poverty figures exist for the 16th–18th centuries, but the colonial economy was marked by widespread poverty and extreme inequality. The export system — first brazilwood, then sugar, later gold — depended heavily on enslaved labor (both African and Indigenous), concentrating wealth in few hands. The plantation economy deepened dependency and exploitation, and the internal economy was also tied to slavery. This pattern of inequality endured long after independence (1822) and the abolition of slavery (1888) — something modern socioeconomic studies highlight clearly.
The first mission posts — and who were the missionaries?
In 1549, King João III sent the first Jesuits with Governor Tomé de Sousa to Bahia/Salvador — led by Manuel da Nóbrega, with José de Anchieta among them. They founded schools and “aldeias” (mission villages) and sought, ideally, to protect Indigenous peoples from enslavement.
In 1554, Nóbrega and Anchieta established the mission and college at Pátio do Colégio, the origin of modern São Paulo. Other religious orders followed in the 16th century along the coastal belt (Bahia, Espírito Santo, Rio): Franciscans, Carmelites, Mercedarians, and later Benedictines and Capuchins. In the Amazon region, Jesuits and Carmelites developed networks of aldeamentos.
How quickly did the mission work expand?
Peaks: 16th–17th centuries — rapid expansion of mission aldeias along the coast (Bahia–Rio–São Vicente/Santos–São Paulo) and in the North (Maranhão/Grão-Pará, Amazon). Education (grammar/Latin schools) and catechesis formed the backbone of this network.
By the mid-17th to early 18th century, Jesuits reached their height of influence in education, Indigenous protection, and administration of large mission settlements, especially in the north.
In 1759, a turning point came when the Marquis of Pombal expelled the Jesuits from all Portuguese territories and confiscated their property — causing the collapse of the classical mission system until their readmission after 1814.
Key features of the mission work
Persistent difficulties
First Belgian missionaries in Brazil
What was their impact?
Timeline overview — Belgian missionary presence in Brazil
1895 (Olinda): Dom Gérard van Caloen of Maredsous Abbey departs for Brazil at the request of Pope Leo XIII to help revive the Brazilian Benedictine Congregation.
1898–1901 (Zevenkerken, Belgium): Foundation of Sint-Andries Abbey (Zevenkerken) near Bruges, serving as a formation house for missionaries bound for Brazil.
~1900 (Averbode in São Paulo/Rio/Minas Gerais): Norbertines of Averbode begin educational missions in Brazil — schools and seminaries in Pirapora, Jaú, and Petrópolis.
1911 (Montes Claros, MG): Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Berlaar arrive to serve in the Santa Casa hospital, caring for the poor; the congregation later establishes a Brazilian province (1969).
1952 (Goiás): The Scheut Missionaries (CICM) arrive in Brazil after their expulsion from China and Mongolia (1949), responding to an invitation from the local bishop to work in pastoral and educational ministries in central Brazil (Cidade de Goiás, Uruaçu, Mara Rosa, Barro Alto).
1958: Belgian theologian Joseph Comblin moves to Brazil, working with Dom Hélder Câmara and becoming a major voice in liberation theology.
1963–1965: Official start of the CICM Brazil mission — early groups expand into the Rio de Janeiro area and the Amazon/Pará region, working in dioceses such as Belo Horizonte, Duque de Caxias, Nova Iguaçu, Itabira-Fabriciano, and Marabá. Their focus: base communities (CEBs), catechetical formation, prison ministry, and social justice.
1969: The Berlaar Sisters establish a Brazilian province, institutionalizing their presence in education and healthcare.
1971 (Sergipe): The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDdeN) arrive from the Belgian province to support base communities, social-pastoral, and educational work (later also active in Pará and Ceará).
Context and Expansion
After 1949, with the loss of mission territories in China and Mongolia, Belgian missionary congregations sought new fields — leading to expansions across Africa, the Americas, and Asia.
The CICM missionaries in Brazil developed large rural parishes, schools, catechist training centers, youth groups, and health initiatives. From the 1960s–1970s, they extended into Pará, Maranhão, and other northern dioceses, often collaborating with Belgian sister congregations such as the Berlaar Sisters, though each order kept its own autonomy. They played a key role in forming Basic Christian Communities (CEBs) inspired by Vatican II and the Medellín Conference (1968).
Evolution and Legacy
Since the 1990s, only a few Belgian CICM missionaries remain active in Brazil, now working closely with local clergy and lay leaders. The Brazilian province of CICM today counts numerous local members, a sign that the mission has become fully inculturated within the Brazilian Church.
Summary of Contributions
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