It is true that, although relevant, physical appearance was not the only factor in the identification of Africans with Catholic devotions. Re-significations of Christian symbols, including images of saints, were certainly not limited to the way things looked. The analogy also came in more abstract terms. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christian religious objects were being used throughout Kongo in the same way as other nkisi-fetiches considered sources of spiritual power (Horta, 1997, pp. 301-21). In this sense, the intense circulation of crucifixes, rosaries and images of saints was also an expression of African re-readings in the very act of producing sacred objects, as Fromont (2014) suggests.  
In this context, the devotion to Saint Anthony also has a particular history as one of the most expressive examples of the complex and profound appropriation of Christianity by Central Africans. While the Portuguese attributed to the saint 'all the victories [they had] in the wars against the heathens of the hinterlands [...] those same "heathens" [...] [venerated him] with the title of God Saint Anthony, and it was not uncommon for them to [carry] his image around their necks. ${ }^{12}$ The history of the great popularization of this devotion began with  
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[^0]:    12 Order of the Governor and Captain-General of the Kingdom of Angola [Marques de Lavradio] to the Overseas Council, 19-08-1750. AHU, Angola, Cx. 37, doc. 50.