“Preces a Nosso Senhor para dar bom tempo”. Preces e Procissões de Penitência da Ordem Franciscana Secular de Coimbra (séculos XVIII-XIX)

Abstract

Historical records are significant for current climatology studies. Ecclesiastical records deserve attention for the lively description of people’s incomprehension of weather adverse phenomena causes, which were invariably seen as a manifestation of God displeasure and punishment. The religious processions and penitence, done in times of calamity, besought God’s blessing for calamity's end. In the years 1744, 1753, 1772, 1793, 1800, 1818 and 1824, the Franciscan Secular Order of Coimbra recorded, for future memory, some of these processions related to extreme weather events that devastated the city of Coimbra. In this article, we present the transcription of seven of these registers.

Keywords

• climate historical studies
• ecclesiastical sources
• rain
• drough
• science and society