[^0]
[^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.  
the movement led by Kongolese noblewoman Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita who, as Saint Anthony in the flesh, preached the unification of Kongo and a new interpretation of Christianity. Considered an instrument of the demonic arts by the Capuchins, Kimpa Vita was accused of heresy and burned at the stake in 1706 (Thornton, 1998). The popularity of Saint Anthony was unquestionable in eighteenth century Kongo and Angola, so that he may have crossed the Atlantic, adopting African contours along the way. This hypothesis is corroborated by the small images of the saint carved in pine discovered in Vale do Paraíba Paulista, a region where a large population of slaves originating in Central Africa was concentrated (Slenes, 1991-92, p. 65).  
African reinterpretations of the Lady of the Rosary also appear to have made the journey across the Atlantic. The encounter with the Lady of the Rosary, or rather, the identification of the saint with the blacks, is one of the main themes of the Congado. ${ }^{13}$ Congadeiro tradition tells the story, in verse and prose, of the day Our Lady appeared in the sea and, after several failed attempts by white priests and musicians, was led to the beach by African drums. In the fifteenth century, Our Lady held the titles of Hebrew Miriam and Slella Mari, so that while this identification in the tradition of the Congados with water, and more precisely with the ocean, was not invented by today's Congadeiros or their ancestors (Kiddy, 2000, p. 49), it did take on African dimensions in its expression through that tradition.