Romeiros

The Rancho dos Romeiros of Toronto was formed in 1982 by Francisco Rodrigues, António Oliveira, and other immigrants from São Miguel, Azores. Every year on Good Friday, this group of devout Catholics perform a religious tradition from the homeland that dates back to 1522. That year, a series of earthquakes destroyed Vila Franca do Campo, then the capital of São Miguel, and killed around 5,000 people. Legend goes that its survivors flocked to their churches day and night to pray for the tremors to stop. Some of them organized into groups of pilgrims who travelled the island to pray in churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Eventually, groups of romeiros were formed in every parish of São Miguel and began organizing their pilgrimages under a standardized hierarchical structure, hymns, customs, and iconography.

The romeiros are led by the mestre (master), contramestre (foreman), and the procurados das almas (solicitor of souls), and followed by a menino da cruz (boy with the cross), two guides, and the other pilgrims. Each pilgrim must carry a bordão (staff), shawl, handkerchief, and rosary, representing different aspects of Jesus Christ’s via dolorosa. In São Miguel, the pilgrimage takes place during Lent over a period of eight days, each starting before dawn and ending at sunset. In Toronto, the pilgrimage only takes one day, Good Friday. Here the romeiros walk on sidewalks and visit eight Catholic churches in the Portuguese neighbourhoods in West Toronto, covering about 12 kilometres in 7 hours. Another significant difference between the romeiros’ tradition in São Miguel and Toronto is the fact that the first is segregated by gender and is predominantly male, whereas in the latter they have a mixed group.