Irmandade de Santa Tereza

Irmandade de Santa Tereza appeared on October 26, 1855 when the 45 brothers (men and women) gathered to write and approve their statutes, with the aim of governing the city's future hospital. The initial statutes were signed by the Baron of Diamantina - Francisco José de Vasconcelos Lessa, Father José Jacinto Nunes and the doctor Claudionor Antônio Azevedo Coutinho. On March 9, 1858, the Bishop of Mariana, Dom Viçoso, approved the statutes and, on July 11 of the same year, the president of the brotherhood was acclaimed, the Baron of Diamantina, the secretary Manoel do Nascimento Moura and the rapporteur Simão da Silva Pereira Lins. The hospital now has an administrative bureau with a provider, the Baron of Diamantina himself, a clerk Dario Clementino da Silva, a treasurer father José Jacinto Nunes and a prosecutor Francisco Cornélio Ribeiro. In practice, a Irmandade (the Brotherhood) ran the hospital with some of its brothers, chosen to form the administrative bureau. The Santa Tereza Hospital was officially opened on April 8, 1863 (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 3, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE).

The decision to invite the Daughters of Charity to take over the administration of the hospital and to found their school in the early twentieth century was articulated by father João Moreira de Carvalho, provider of the same hospital in several mandates. He had the help of the former director of the Municipal Normal School of Serro, Alcebíades Nunes de Ávila e Silva (scribe of the brotherhood in all the mandates of the provider Father João Moreira). Apparently, a fundamental support was that of the master Cristina Amélia de Queirós Queiroga, who opened her house to receive the first sisters, while the hospital adapted to host them.

The priest from Serro João Moreira da Silva (1873-1947) did his primary studies with the master Cristina Amélia de Queirós Queiroga "who became his protector and great friend", according to Souza (1999, p. 256). He was vicar of the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception) and mayor. Professor Alcebíades Nunes de Ávila e Silva (1870-1942) was one of the founders of the Municipal Normal School of Serro and, according to ^{Pires (2015}, p. 17), "in everything manifested his catholic spirit." The master Cristina Amélia de Queirós Queiroga (c.1837-1920) was the daughter of Bernardino José de Queiroga Júnior (1800-1866) who was a lawyer, councilman, provincial deputy, and president of the province of Minas Gerais in 1848. He married Maria Salomé de Queirós Queiroga. Maria Salomé de Queirós Queiroga lived in Casa da Arca (House of the Ark), a former shelter for orphans. The master Cristina became a normalist in Ouro Preto and returned to Serro in 1870, founding her own private school. When she died in 1920, her former residence was given to the operation of the Escola de Nossa Senhora da Conceição (School of Our Lady of Conception). The three articulators for the arrival of the Daughters of Charity at Serro were deeply linked to ultramontane catholicism, represented in Minas Gerais by the bishop of Mariana Dom ⁵Antônio Ferreira Viçoso and the bishop of Diamantina Dom José Antônio dos Santos. The moralization of children and young people by quality education - usually linked to the teaching of morals and civics and religious education - was one of the best-known flags of ultramontane fighters.

Thus, the ideia of introducing the Daughters of Charity in Serro to improve the administration of the hospital, public health, and public instruction - with an orphanage for poor girls and a boarding school for wealthy girls -first appeared in the Livro de Atas da Irmandade de Santa Tereza (Book of Proceedings of the Brotherhood of Santa Tereza), in a meeting of October 19, 1902. According to the record of the proceedings, on that day a new election was made that renewed to father João Moreira da Silva the position of provider and the clerk Alcebíades Nunes de Ávila e Silva. The priest, in his speech said that, because of the insistence with which the worthy administrator Dona Ana Brandão Nunes, spoke of leaving the administration of the hospital, insistence due to health nuisances, provided to see if it would be possible the coming of the Irmãs de São Vicente de Paulo (Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul) "who were in charge of the administration giving the departure of the current worthy administrator who deserves praise for the dedicated way in which he has performed his duties" (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 32, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE). The provider said that he would communicate to the house what he could in that sense, after approved by the bureau the delivery of the hospital to the Sisters of Charity. He did not explain the strategy used, but everything indicates that the request was made to the Bishop of Diamantina, Don José Antônio dos Santos (1863-1905) who must have forwarded the request to the superior of the same sisters, Father Lacoste, who accepted the invitation. The Daughters of Charity had been working in Diamantina/MG since 1866, when the same bishop had founded the Colégio Nossa Senhora das Dores (Lady of Sorrows School), passing the administration to the Vincentians.

In the session of July 21, 1903, the provider gave the house the knowledge that the coming of the Sisters of Charity to take over the internal administration of the house judged so far impossible now seemed to become a reality, being the same ready to come. Everything was combined with the protector of father João Moreira, Dona Cristina Queiroga, who offered excellent accommodation in her house until the same hospital had built them. This is confirmed by the account of Maria Salomé Nunes, Zinha, in the record of Maria Eremita de Souza. According to the interviewee,

In 1904, four Sisters of Charity came to Santa Casa: sister Vicência Benevides, sister Maria Carvalho, sister Biard and sister Luiza Guedes. Sister Biard came as superior. They began teaching sewing, flower, embroidery, in Queirogas’ house, this sister Luiza Guedes. Then they came to the house of master Cristina... this offered. She taught sister Vivência Benevides and sister Luiza Guedes. It worked in this time where the gym was the normal school. Sister Benevides taught Portuguese and other disciplines, there was no separate discipline. Professor Miguel Cardoso contributed a lot to transform the then day school what sister Benevides' classes were called in a like -- [1913]. Zinha [Maria Salomé Nunes] graduated as a normalist at Escola Normal do Serro in 1907 and was appointed in 1908 to June 12, 1908 and the school was not yet equated (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 3, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE).

A few months later, the clerk Alcebíades Nunes de Ávila e Silva wrote:

On the 7th day of February of the year of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ in 1904 in the session room of the brotherhood of St. Teresa of Jesus of this city of Serro, present the brothers who make up the administrative table, the provider opened the extraordinary session specially convened to give possession to the Exma. Sister Superior Tereza, Sister Maria, Sister Vicência and Sister Luiza who by deliberation of the brotherhood assume the administration of the hospital being in fact sworn in. For the record, the gift that is duly signed is included: provider father João Moreira da Silva, clerk Alcebíades Nunes de Ávila e Silva, treasurer Francisco Caetano Xavier, Francisco Roberto Brandão da Fonseca, canon Epaminondas Nunes de Ávila e Silva, Henrique Carlos de Vasconcelos Lessa, sister Tereza, sister Maria, sister Vicência, sister Luiza (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 32, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE).

In the session of February 24, 1904, the dominant subject was the program of externality presented to the bureau by Irmãs de São Vicente de Paulo (Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul) who were already in possession of the administration of the hospital. The clerk noted that soon it would be inaugurated the normal school for boys and girls and should the same work in halls of the house of Dona Cristina Amélia de Queirós Queiroga who gave them for the said end free of charge. The reverend provider still exposed that on the need for a loan in the amount of 8:000$000 for the completion of the works of the same hospital. In the following sessions, the sisters communicated the acquisition of a harmonium through collection of alms and quermesse (bazaar) and exposed their ease in negotiating with the Brazilian government the transport of equipment by Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil (Central Railway of Brazil) (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 32, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE). With the arrival of the sisters the Brotherhood received successive donations - which was common since its foundation.

On December 3, 1905, Teófilo Pinheiro delivered a donation of 1:000$000 (a million réis) in the name of Dona Idalécia Augusta Brandão and another 500$000 (five hundred thousand réis) on the condition of being admitted a girl to be educated in the future boarding school. A few months later, the same Teófilo Brandão gave $3,000 ,000 (three million réis) for the increase in the patrimony of the Brotherhood and especially for the aid for the maintenance of a school for girls by the Brotherhood. Therefore, it was during the meetings of the Irmandade Santa Tereza that it was decided to introduce the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Serro’s education and public health.

The social works of Filhas da Caridade

The history of the Congregação das Filhas da Caridade em Minas Gerais (Congregation of the Daughters of Charity in Minas Gerais) began in Mariana, taking over Colégio Providência (Providence School), founded by Dom Viçoso in 1850 (^{MUNIZ, 1999}). According to ^{Lage (2011}, p. 22), in a context of analysis carried out in our current time,

The installation and strengthening of the activities undertaken by the Daughters of Charity in Mariana from 1849 took place due to the performance of bishop D. Antônio Ferreira Viçoso, responsible for strengthening romanized catholicism in Minas Gerais lands. [...] The use of Vincentians in the project of romanization and universalization of catholicism in the 19th century was due to its long history and organizational specificities. The Congregação das Filhas de Caridade (Congregation of the Daughters of Charity) was founded in France in 1633 by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. There was already a male aspect, the Congregation of the Mission (or Lazarists). The intentionality of the foundation of the female aspect was causally linked to the issue of the expansion of the idea of charity, and Vincentians would be responsible for various activities: care for the sick in hospitals, care in nursing homes for the disabled and the elderly, the creation of abandoned and orphaned children, the assistance in maternity wards, prisons, etc.

At Serro, the first Sisters of Charity arrived on February 3, 1904. A group of four missionaries organized around a superior of the community, sister Teresa Biard, a native of France. The other sisters who formed the first group from Serro were sister Vicência Benevides, sister Luisa Guedes and sister Maria Monteiro Carvalho, of Portuguese origin.

Around May 1, 1904, the missionary group founded a children's school in one of master Cristina's rooms in her residence, where the first sisters were temporarily staying.

In 1906, following the logic of child and youth catcheting, sister Teresa Biard founded the group of Associação Filhas de Maria (Association of the Daughters of Mary). In the absence of studies on the Daughters of Mary in Serro, it is possible, by comparison, to understand how it was organized, for example, in Diamantina, at the Escola de Nossa Senhora das Dores (School of our Lady of Pain). According to ^{Dias (2015}, n.p.), "the Association of the Daughters of Mary of the School of Our Lady of Pain, was a religious institution created in 1875 in the city of Diamantina and that, until 1948, expanded considerably, it had 117 associates and 11,623 associates throughout Brazil." The religious prescriptions for the behaviors to be practiced by a daughter of Mary made it possible to "observe that women were only accepted and legitimized by society from the moment they were annulled for the benefit of the husband, children or divine spouse, regardless of the chosen state." Thus, "he was, in a light of it, a being who lived for others, who had no existence in himself" and Mary's daughters admitted to the association, "both orphans and minor interns received a pink ribbon, representing the baby Jesus; soon after, depending on their gestures and behaviors, they received purple and green ribbons that were preparation; finally they received the blue ribbon of the Daughters of Mary." The author explains that "in order to obtain the latter, the young woman should imitate the virtues of Our Lady, be humble and obedient" and "considered herself the greatest honor to achieve this condition, and many of the students did not obtain such privilege" and that "the tapes were used to attend mass, attend parties, processions and meetings with the mother superior."

That same year, on September 25, Casa de Caridade Santa Tereza (House of Charity Santa Tereza) received a visit in a magna session of the president of the state of Minas Gerais, from Serro, João Pinheiro da Silva, who inaugurated the renovated building. At the time - and this is one of the only records of the girls in the orphanage - the girl Amelia Nunes de Moura e Silva greeted the president on behalf of Asiladas de Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Asylees of Lady of Conception), followed by several musical plays and a dialogue by the girls Eponina and Otonina. The session ended with a speech by João Pinheiro (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 3, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE).

On September 11, 1908, after the acquisition of the former house of the Baron of Diamantina from the hand of his heirs by the Irmandade de Santa Tereza, the Asylo (Asylum) and Colégio Nossa Senhora da Conceição (School of Lady of Conception) was founded. This means that the building was an orphanage residence for orphaned girls and a college for external students.

On October 15, 1909, the visitor of the Congregation of the Mission authorized another sister to be a teacher of Colégio Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception School) on the condition that the two sisters of the school should have their meals in common with those of the hospital. Because the school had its distinct economy in nothing on the way of Irmandade de Santa Tereza, the permission was granted in a meeting of Irmandade de Santa Tereza, "being insignificant the increase of expenditure for the house in view of the great benefit to our population comes from the existence of the school, entrusted to the worthy benevolent daughters of St. Vincent de Paul" (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 3, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE).

In 1910, the superior sister Teresa Biard⁶ was transfered from the community, taking in her place the new superior sister Maria Monteiro Carvalho. In 1912, it was installed the first private electric lighting in Santa Casa, Asylo and Colégio, and the generator was adapted to the hospital yard mill. In 1920, the master Cristina Amélia de Queirós Queiroga died leaving everything that belonged to her to the school and the orphanage. Inheriting the residence of master Cristina in will, Irmandade de Santa Tereza transferred the school and orphanage from the building of Rua Barão de Diamantina to the house where the history of the sisters in the city had begun, in the old school of master Cristina. The former house of the Baron of Diamantina was not completely deactivated, since it was ceded to the operation of the Patronage of the Ottoni, which operated from 1921 to 1930, also using for its workshops the House of the Ottoni and the Patronage Farm, in the corner of the Beach⁷ (ARQUIVO PESSOAL MARIA EREMITA DE SOUZA, Caderno 3, n.p. - PERSONAL ARCHIVE). The former patronage's house was only sold by Irmandade de Santa Tereza in 1946, for the amount of 100:000$000 (a hundred million réis).

What was taught in Colégio das Irmãs?

O Colégio de Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception School) had as its initial objective - when it was created as Asylo Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception Asylum) in 1907 - to serve the invalidated, poor, and abandoned girls to orphan. In the Album of the Bicentennial of 1914, a photograph draws attention because it is "the first orphans with which, six years ago, the Asylo de Nossa Senhora da Conceição began, today a similar Normal School" (^{SILVA, 1914}, n.p.). In it appear 22 young women, adolescent girls, and children of various ages, some perhaps two years old, all with the ribbons of the Association of the Daughters of Mary around their necks. They are led by father João Moreira da Silva who carries his hand to his chest, with three sisters of charity distributed proportionally behind the orphans and, in the center, at the door, the banner of the Association of the Daughters of Mary. Twenty-two children have been abandoned by the most different situations: death of their mother, abandonment in the public space as foundling since birth, extreme poverty of parents who chose to put them in a school where they could have something to eat, what to wear, what to learn. The photography does not reveal the daily life of the orphanage, its schedules, the rigorous discipline, the obligatory catholic teaching with its prayers and liturgies. The routine of the orphanage is implied. However, the hygienist ideal is evident in the cleaning of clothes, of the banner, in the perfect order of children in upright posture. There is an ideal of purity that seems to be held in all those present in photography - children, priests, and sisters of charity.

Source: Álbum do Bicentenário do Serro (Bicentennial album of Serro), 1914

Figure 2 Photograph of orphans of the Asylo Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception Asylum) - 1913 

In the orphanage, the shelter would guarantee children, adolescent girls, and young women the radical removal from the evils of the world and guarantee, through education, a better future for each of them. The girls in photography are shown as the result of mountain-quality education, as a charity that effectively showed their reason for being, improving the city, moralizing, and civilizing the abandoned of society.

It is that Asylo Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception Asylum) was created to end (partially, because the care was only for children and adolescent girls) with a chronic problem since the eighteenth century and that perpetuated during the nineteenth century: the foundling, the invalidated and the unwanted orphans were created by guardian families with the help of public coffers. Now, with the sisters of charity, the city had modernized, with its own building to welcome the orphans, with specialized care. This idea was the main argument for giving the education of orphans to the sisters, as happened, even in Lisbon, as ^{Lage tells us (2011}, p. 128):

The constitution and initiatives of the society demonstrate the charitable and religious character of the female world Portuguese. Within the principle of charity of the female nobility, those women tried to solve the problem of the large number of orphaned children as a result of the epidemics, which already crowded existing orphanages or lived in precarious conditions with their families. It is also perceived the concern with the need to co-opt people who knew how to deal specifically with poor and orphaned children, with methods different from those used in Casa Pia, besides solving the problem of the lack of teachers with full availability of time and able to make orphans good citizens, good fathers, good mothers, and even good Christians. In the opinion of the Protective Society, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul had extensive experience and would be more appropriate in this task.

What would be the educational intention developed pedagogically in the reception of children and adolescent girls in Asylo Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception Asylum)? Instruct girls to become virtuous housewives - married or celibate - in the service of a happy home. This is what the manual of domestic economics entitled The Happy Home, ⁸published in 1916 (apud ^{MALUF, MOTT, 1999}, p. 374), reported, for example. It reads that "the woman always is responsible for home - modestly that it is - a temple that worships happiness"; woman would compete, then, "to send home the ray of light that dissipates boredom, just as the rays of the sun ruin the bad microbes" and, therefore, "if the home has as administrator a woman, a woman dedicated and with love of order, that then is health for all, it is the union of hearts, perfect happiness in the small state, whose minister of finance is the father, it is up to the companion of his life the political portfolio, the affairs of the interior."

Thus, the technical capacity of training children and adolescent girls of the Daughters of Charity recognized as the modernization of Serro’s customs was amalgam to the progressive interests of local elites, concerned with moralizing orphans, contributing to the perpetuation of the traditional family from Serro. Thus, ^{Maluf and Mott (1999}, p. 373-374):

Based on the belief of a feminine nature, which would give women biologically to perform the functions of private life, the discourse is well known: the place of the woman is home, and its function consists of marrying, generating children for the homeland and soothe the character of the citizens of tomorrow. Within this perspective, there would be no possible achievement for women outside home. [...] The image of the mother-wife-housewife as the main and most important function of the woman corresponded to what was preached by church, taught by doctors and jurists, legitimized by the state, and disseminated by the press.

The Escola de Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception School) also functioned as a primary school. However, its fame that spread throughout the interior of Minas Gerais in the 20th century was due to the quality of its normal teaching in boarding and external systems. Even before having its normal course equated to the normal schools of the state of Minas Gerais by Law 4.040, of October 30, 1913, it announced as follows in number 57 of the newspaper A Voz do Serro, of July 30, 1913:

This school is installed in a vast and airy building, which complies with the strictest hygiene requirements. Under the competent and affectionate direction of the dignitary Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul, there the teaching comprises the complete primary course and almost all normal, English, vocal music, piano, mandolin, painting and needle work. The pension is only $80$000 per quarter, including laundry. You pay another $26$ 000 in entrance jewelry. It is optional to teach piano music, mandolin, English and painting, paying separately to 10$000 monthly. Registration opens on October 1 and the school year closes on July 31. Students of any age are received (ARQUIVO IPHAN SERRO. Jornais. A Voz do Serro, 30/07/1913)

In fact, the regulation of the normal course offered by Serro’s Escola Nossa Senhora da Conceição (School of Lady of Conception) had been established by Decree No. 1,960 of December 16, 1906, which provided for the official functioning of primary public instruction and normal education. The same law as school groups was also the law of normal state schools. What would be the disciplines that made up the curriculum structure of the normal course of the Colégio Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception School)?

The answer is in the regulation of 1906 in its article 146, which confirms the announcement of the newspaper A Voz do Serro transcribed above. The official regulation mentions teaching subjects in normal schools, distributed by: 1st Portuguese and French; 2nd arithmetic, geometry, and mercantile bookkeeping; 3rd geography, history, moral and civic education; 4th general concepts of physics, chemistry, natural history and hygiene; 5th song; 6th drawing. Each of the disciplines should be governed only by a teacher and needle work should be entrusted, mandatorily, to a lady (MINAS GERAIS, 1906, p. 177).

The newspaper A Voz do Serro reported that on December 1, 1913, "the solemn installation of the normal course at Colégio N. S. da Conceição (School of Lady of Conception), "directed by the selfless Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul." The newspaper says that "the inaugural session presided over by Mr. Dr. Félix Generoso, judge of law of the District at the invitation of Mr. Henrique Rosa da Silva, municipal school inspector, was opened with the hymns to Our Lady and the Flag, sung by some students of the establishment with piano cupboard." Then, monsignor João Moreira da Silva, "in a long and brilliant speech he presented the advantages resulting from the equalization of the School for all the young women who seek it, preparing them to better fulfill their high destinies and giving them a diploma that will guarantee their tranquility in the future." Dr. Nicodemos de Araújo spoke and Dr. Félix Generoso then spoke, who "recalled the beginnings of the School in 1907, and without a house and bread, who is becoming a member of him today - an establishment that would highlight among the most refined civilizations in the world." Finally, he added that "the number of students enrolled in the normal course reaches 57."

Important account left us the teacher from Serro Zenaide Generoso Guerra on the school and its normal course. Mrs. Zenaide in her memoir reproduces the events of the year 1921, that is, her entry into the normal course of the school was in the class that for the first time used the building inherited from the master Cristina Amelia de Queirós Queiroga, in 1920. This is the best-known building of the School in Serro because of its walkway, an airfare between the school and the choir of its chapel, walkway that elevation on Ladeira da Matriz (Hill of the Matrix).

Second War (1988, p. 17-19), "in 1921 I took the admission exam and was enrolled in the Our Lady of Conception School, equated to the Normal School of Belo Horizonte"; she continues: "at the time, the normal course was 4 years and, at the end of 1924, I was a member of the In the fourth year were my external colleagues: Mirtes Mórtimer, Zulmira Clementino, Edir Tolentino, Ignez Geneoroso da Fonseca and Ambrosina Cunha Pereira"; her memory recalled the internal students who were "some 25 colleagues, unless mistaken"; among other colleagues I failed a subject, Portuguese, having to take a new exam the following year, in the second season, and, approved on March 5, 1925, I received my diploma, being able to practice the function of primary teacher"; in addition, the former student recalls that the intuition was always very good, "because not only instructed, but educated the students, physically and religiously" and "in addition to didactic classes, there were classes in Moral and Civic instruction and Catechism, every Monday, by the reverend monsignor João Moreira"; in relation to enrollment, she states that they grew every year and that "many students, after graduation, continued in the school as postulants to future Sisters of Charity consecrated to St Vincent de Paul"; the discipline "was very strict" and the students of the boarding school "had no contact with the external ones" and this required that the internal students when they needed to go out to mass, for example, should keep their heads down and without looking sideways, otherwise "at the end of the month, the grade of the external students" was reduced by poor procedure; finally, the former student explains that monsignor Moreira "kept the students of the school as the parents guarded their daughters" and that he "preached a lot of morals to the people from Serro, who were very catholic and respected him a lot, when he became aware of something wrong in the city, went to the pulpit, spoke and protested and the people heeded and followed his advice."

Therefore, until 1921, Escola Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception School) remained as a private school of reference in the north of Minas Gerais, especially because of its pedagogical morality and the successful hygienist project of Irmandade de Santa Tereza headed by father João Moreira da Silva, the conservative catholic Alcebíades Nunes de Ávila e Silva and the celibate master Cristina Amélia de Queirós Queiroga.

Conclusion

In general, the projects of catcheting and/or evangelization of the catholic church were very well planned and implemented rigorously in Brazil. This began in 1549 with the arrival of the priests of the Society of Jesus together with the first governor-general of the colony, Tomé de Souza. In that context of catholic counter-reformation, increasing the number of faithful was particularly important, especially outside Europe, where the protestant wave promoted mass conversions. According to ^{Raymundo (1998}, p. 43), "the Jesuit Order is the product of a mutual interest between the Crown of Portugal and the Papacy. It is useful to the church and the emerging state" since "the two intend to expand the world, defend the new frontiers, join forces, integrate lay and Christian interests, organize work in the New World by the force of law-king-faith unity." The Jesuits were expelled from Brazil in 1759, within the Pombaline reform (na Education reform conducted by Marquis of Pombal), which directly affected colonial education.

In the 19th century, women's education became a new phenomenon within the development of the capitalist economy in a constant process of globalization and massification from Europe. With this, in the period from 1843 to 1874 there was an intense missionary movement of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul towards Brazil and many other countries of the world. This was part of the proposal of the catholic presence in all possible spaces, in order to maintain its hegemony in the Western world. ^{Lage (2011}, p. 25) explains that:

There were three decisive reasons for success and also that enabled the expansion of French women's congregations in the 19th century: the ability to adapt this religious way of life to places of installation; the effectiveness of congregations in meeting the needs of society; and the possibility of articulating the urban world with the countryside, since they transited in those two cultures. First, the congregations multiplied and prospered because they had a simple model of use: an easily controllable form of religious life and an effective instrument for acting on society. This adaptability was particularly evident in the plurality of the types of geographical implantation and in how they were able to adapt their modalities of penetration abroad.

Because of the catholic ultramontane movement in Minas Gerais, headed by the bishop of Mariana Dom Viçoso and Diamantina, Don Santos, school pastoral care was encouraged through the opening of schools and ecclesiastical seminaries, administered by European religious congregations. Thus, the city of Serro was affected by the expansion of the ultramontane movement of conservative characteristics because it expanded the hygienist discourse, within the necessary care for the public health of the body and soul, a common refined instructional program taught by its agents who operated on its devices with a pedagogical-pastoral morality revealing disciplinary power and biopower. Thus, according to ^{Louro (2000}, p. 458), in a context of analysis carried out in our current time:

The school seemed to develop an ambiguous movement: on one hand, it promoted a kind of rupture with the teaching developed in the home, because somehow it was more capable or with greater legitimacy to minister the knowledge required for the modern woman; on the other hand, it promoted, through various means, its connection with the house, to the extent that it surrounded the teacher's training of references to motherhood and affection.

Therefore, our study demonstrated that the primary mission of confessional schools for children and adolescent girls implanted in Brazil in the second half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century was guided by the "pedagogical" hygienism and moralizing ultramontanism of the bodies and souls of those students. With this discourse and pedagogical practices, the idea of confessional schools for children and adolescent girls - orphanage, boarding school and normal school in the city of Serro - was considered a fundamental part for female moralization, to maintain control over their bodies and souls, in short, to provide social hygiene in a society that was being affected by the anticlerical and secular positivist republican political modernization and by the increasing modernization of the labor market due to the abolition of slavery , which still produced social inequality and abandonment of children and adolescent girls by their guardians.