Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo

Yesterday, we visited the Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo, a museum dedicated to the collection and display of sacred art of Brazil. Founded in 1970, it was magnificent. There before us were art treasures 100-400 years old. There were paintings and sculpture. Most of them you could actually touch, though occasionally on particularly old or frail items there would be a sign requesting the viewer not to do so. The only things seriously protected were bejeweled and precious metal statuary.

The museum, located in the Luz neighborhood of Sao Paulo in the left wing of the Luz monastery, was founded in 1774 by Frei Galvão. The monastery is considered the most outstanding colonial building of the eighteenth century in São Paulo to preserve its original building elements, materials and structure.

Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo

It was listed in Brazil as an architectural monument of historic importance in 1943. We saw the original construction of the walls and flooring. Nearly three feet thick, the walls are stacked blocks made from clay, ground animal excrement, sand, small stones, and blood. Probably the blood was used as a binder. Blocks typically measured about 3 x 4 x 2 feet. Each block, of course, was made by hand, but owing to high humidity here in SP, notably took about nine months to dry. So, the stacking was delayed. In a time, when the Church measured time in centuries, the monastery took correspondingly about a century to complete.

Artifact in Chapel

The monastery still functions, both as a charming church with ornate imagery, and with a convent for thirteen cloistered nuns. The cloistering is complete with the nuns living on the second floor above the museum. The upstairs windows are well shielded from any view inside or the glass is frosted. Throughout the facility there are passages so the nuns may move about unobserved and attend mass, which they do from a view-shielded enclosure at the rear of the chapel. They even have a private cemetery area on the grounds. They do have at least one activity beyond the religious duties, and that is they bake bread and other goods for sale in the Museum. We bought some.

For me, living a mostly secular life in the 21^st century the proximity to a way of life so very different from provided an interesting contrast. When I was young and growing up in Milwaukee, there were convents and monasteries all about. There were cloistered nuns and monks in the community. It was an alternative though accepted pathway in life. Today, with an emphasis by the church on outreach, it seems a little strange. These nuns, given to a (stated) life of contemplation and prayer to God, seem to have chosen a life out of step with even their own sponsor.

A final note. When the population of thirteen nuns was mentioned, you may have thought the order is fading from existence. But no, this is the steady state. When one of their members dies, she is replaced by another. Yes, they have a wait-list. The novice spends eight years in service meditation prior to taking final vows. That takes commitment!

Next time you’re in São Paulo, check out this rare find.

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