Do noviciado à perseverança vocacional: cinquenta anos de caminhada formativa do Comissariado Geral dos Carmelitas do Paraná

Abstract

This article aims to analyse 50 years of the formation journeys of Carmelites within the General Commissariat of Carmelites of  Paraná (1971-2021). Therefore, a research methodology was sought that would make it possible to deepen our understanding of  the formative path of each friar over these years, from the theoretical point of view (cognitive aspect) and application (empirical  aspect). Using a descriptive methodology and probabilistic sampling, data was collected in a simple casual way, resulting in 150  participants. In general terms, the data indicates that, of the 113 brothers who took their first vows, around 40% took perpetual  vows and that, on average, for every 10 brothers who entered the novitiate, 3 of them took perpetual vows. In terms of vocational  perseverance, the data indicate that 35% of the brothers who professed perpetual vows left the Carmelites. However, the rate of  vocational perseverance within the Commissariat is below average when compared with the general rate at ecclesial level in Latin  America. The Carmelite complexes built in Romagna between the end of the 17th century and the second half of the 18th century show the  artistic developments of local sacred architecture both in terms of number of buildings and quality of the projects carried out. In fact, not only the monks settled in all the most important centers of the Papal province, but the design of their churches and  monasteries was always entrusted to some of the most important architects active in the region at that time: Pier Mattia Angeloni  (1627-1701) in Cesena, the aristocratic “amateur” Giuseppe Merenda (1687-1767) in Forlì, the Bolognese Giuseppe Antonio Torri  (1663-1713) and Alfonso Torreggiani (1682-1764) in Medicina and several other Ticino master builders between Imola and Lugo, not  least Domenico Trifogli (1675-1759) – great-uncle and first teacher of Cosimo Morelli (1732-1812) – and Francesco Ambrogio  Petrocchi (1706-1778).