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<p>This article examines baptism and marriage in the Jesuit reductions of Paraguay (seventeenth–eighteenth centuries) as sacramental celebrations central to the production of a missionary Christian social order. Drawing on missionary chronicles, the <i>Cartas Anuas</i>, and internal normative texts of the Society of Jesus, it argues that these sacraments operated not merely as doctrinal rites but as public ritual events endowed with strong social visibility. Through their collective and solemn administration—often accompanied by music, processions, ornamentation, and communal gatherings—baptism and marriage structured the Christian life cycle, reorganized kinship relations, and reinforced moral normativity within Indigenous communities. By analyzing their ritual staging and regulatory framework, the article demonstrates how sacramental practice functioned as a technology of spiritual governance that integrated evangelization, sociability, and social discipline. In doing so, it proposes broadening the concept of festivity in the reductions to include sacramental practices that, although not formally part of the liturgical calendar, played a decisive role in shaping the ritual and social universe of missionary life.</p>

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Sacramental Celebrations and the Ritualization of Social Order in the Jesuit Reductions of Paraguay

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月17日

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  • Carlos A. Page

摘要

This article examines baptism and marriage in the Jesuit reductions of Paraguay (seventeenth–eighteenth centuries) as sacramental celebrations central to the production of a missionary Christian social order. Drawing on missionary chronicles, the Cartas Anuas, and internal normative texts of the Society of Jesus, it argues that these sacraments operated not merely as doctrinal rites but as public ritual events endowed with strong social visibility. Through their collective and solemn administration—often accompanied by music, processions, ornamentation, and communal gatherings—baptism and marriage structured the Christian life cycle, reorganized kinship relations, and reinforced moral normativity within Indigenous communities. By analyzing their ritual staging and regulatory framework, the article demonstrates how sacramental practice functioned as a technology of spiritual governance that integrated evangelization, sociability, and social discipline. In doing so, it proposes broadening the concept of festivity in the reductions to include sacramental practices that, although not formally part of the liturgical calendar, played a decisive role in shaping the ritual and social universe of missionary life.