“Viver a Missão”: a Irmandade da Santa Cruz na Vila Alterosa Juí, Alto Solimões, Amazonas

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the Irmandade da Santa Cruz as a religious experience and a form of social organization in the Amazon, with an empirical focus on Vila Alterosa Juí, in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá, in the Upper Solimões region, Amazonas, Brazil. The objective is to understand how religiosity structures social life in the Cidade Santa. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the research mobilizes contributions from Anthropology and Sociology, in dialogue with History and Geography, in order to interpret this religious collective as a complex social phenomenon. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative approach based on ethnographic methods, grounded in in-person interviews, informal conversations, systematic field notes, and photographic documentation. The results indicate that the Irmandade da Santa Cruz goes beyond the institutional dimension of the Church and consolidates itself as a community project that organizes territory, establishes religious norms, and sustains its own moral system. The memory of the Founder, Irmão José da Cruz, remains a central symbolic reference and guides leadership succession and the continuity of the Mission. The analysis demonstrates that religion operates in the ordering of collective life, producing community belonging and moral stability.