Rosa Egipcíaca

Death certificate (Torre do Tombo National Archive)Rosa Egipcíaca, also known as Rosa Maria Egipcíaca of Vera Cruz and Rosa Courana (1719 – 12 October 1771), was a formerly enslaved writer and religious mystic, who was the author of A Sagrada Teologia do Amor de Deus Luz Brilhante das Almas Peregrinas (The Sacred Theology of Love of God Brilliant Light of Pilgrim Souls) – the oldest book written by a black woman in the history of Brazil.

Early life

Egipcíaca was born on the , close to where modern-day Lagos is in Nigeria. She was born a member of the Coura people and was enslaved when she was six years old, and taken via the Atlantic slave trade to Rio de Janeiro in 1725. When she arrived she was baptised at the Igreja da Candelária and given the name Rosa (or, as she is sometimes referred to, Rosa Courana – reflecting her West African cultural identity). In 1733 she was sold to Dona Ana Garcês de Morais who owned a mining camp at Inficionado in the Minas Gerais region. Egipcíaca's previous enslaver, José de Souza de Azevedo, had sexually abused her. In the mining camp, as the only enslaved woman, as an escrava de ganho, she was forced to provide sex for the seventy-seven enslaved men there.

Religious life At the age of 29, Egipcíaca began to have supernatural visions, following a period of illness that was characterised by abdominal pain – she claimed the pain was caused by demons. Historian Robert Krueger associated these symptoms with venereal disease. Subsequently, they were accused of having an affair and prosecuted by the Inquisition.

In 1754 she founded a new religious house – Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora do Parto (The Convent of Our Lady of Childbirth). She also performed miraculous healings. Subsequently, she worked as a kitchen servant for the Inquisition.

A Sagrada Teologia do Amor de Deus Luz Brilhante das Almas Peregrinas In the book Egipcíaca detailed her visions, describing how she fed the infant Christ at her breast and how he combed her hair in return, that she and Jesus had swapped hearts and that she had died and been revived, among others. In Rio de Janeiro at the time of her writing, there were twenty-seven other literate women. It was published in 1997. Criola, a black feminist organisation based in Rio de Janeiro, cites Egipcíaca's life as an important inspiration for their activities.

Historiography Egipcíaca's life was overlooked until the 1993 publication by Luiz Mott of Rosa Egipcíaca: Uma santa Africana no Brasil. According to Mott, Egipcíaca lived the life of both a sinner and a saint, and this can be seen as a challenge to the "fixed categories the Catholic church created for women". Matthias Röhrig Assunção discussed how significant it is that an enslaved African woman could become "an object of popular Catholic devotion" in Brazil. Paul Christopher Johnson described her significance in terms of how she was a 'healing saint' who was a product of Afro-Brazilian culture.