In mid-1746, a ship from Angola encountered a violent storm as it approached the entrance to Guanabara Bay. On board was the Benedictine monk Dom Antônio do Desterro Malheiro Reimão, recently appointed bishop of Rio de Janeiro. According to accounts preserved by Catholic tradition and historical records, the panicked religious man made a desperate promise upon seeing a small, isolated church by the sea. If he survived the storm, he would completely restore the temple. The episode would end up changing not only the history of the small church dedicated to Our Lady of Copacabana, but also the name of one of the most famous beaches in Rio de Janeiro.
Back then, Copacabana wasn't yet Copacabana. The region was known by its old indigenous name, Sacopenapã, and was a distant, almost deserted sandy area far from the colonial center of Rio de Janeiro, separated from the city by hills, lagoons, and difficult paths. There were fishermen, small farms, and a simple hermitage facing the ocean.
The story has survived thanks to a good mix of historical documentation, religious tradition, and popular memory. What began as a promise made by a terrified priest in the midst of a sea storm ended up incorporated into the identity of Rio. For many historians, it was at that moment, amidst violent waves and lightning, that the Copacabana neighborhood was symbolically born.
Which bishop was that?
One of the main characters in our story was the son of Portuguese nobles and was born in Viana do Castelo in 1694. Dom Antônio do Desterro Malheiro Reimão was a man of erudition and prestige in the Order of Saint Benedict. A Doctor of Theology from the University of Coimbra, he was no novice at sea. He had already crossed the ocean to serve as bishop of São Paulo de Luanda, in Angola, where he remained for six years.
He was a figure of free movement in the Portuguese court, being appointed by King Dom João V to assume the immense Diocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro in 1745, a post he held until his death on December 5, 1773, at the age of 79. He is remembered as the sixth bishop of the Marvelous City and the one responsible for transforming a modest chapel into the sanctuary that would give its name and worldwide fame to Copacabana beach.
The storm, the promise, and a small church glimpsed from the sea.
In 1746, Dom Antônio was traveling from Angola to Rio to assume the diocese. But before entering Guanabara Bay, his ship was surprised by a violent storm. Amidst the heavy rain and the ship's jolts, the bishop spotted, from afar, the small church dedicated to Our Lady of Copacabana, which he already knew, as he had briefly passed through the city on a previous trip between Portugal and Luanda.
In the midst of the downpour and terrified by the imminent shipwreck, seeing the top of that hill with the small temple was like finding a divine lighthouse. Dom Antônio then promised Our Lady of Copacabana that, if he survived, he would make improvements to that building. Saved from disaster, Dom Antônio kept his promise.
But then there was already a Copacabana church there?
Well, the little church that Dom Antônio spotted in the middle of the storm wasn't new. Historical documents indicate that by 1732 the temple was already in ruins, proving that its foundation occurred long before the arrival of the Benedictine bishop. But the exact origin of the little church of Our Lady of Copacabana, where the Fort of the same name now stands, is one of the most nebulous points in our history.
The most widespread version attributes the initiative to the so-called "peruleiros": Bolivian and Peruvian silver merchants who arrived in the region in the 17th century. The immigrants brought with them a replica of the image of Our Lady of Copacabana. On a rock on the beach then called Sacopenapã, they built the small chapel.
Another theory suggests that the small church was built by local fishermen in the early 18th century. Most likely, the two stories are intertwined: the image brought by the fishermen may have initially been housed in a makeshift manner, and the structure later consolidated by the fishermen of the region.
The Bolivian saint and Lake Titicaca
To understand what an image from Bolivia was doing in a small fisherman's chapel in Rio de Janeiro, it's necessary to go back to the 16th century and climb to an altitude of 3.800 meters to the Bolivian city of Copacabana, situated on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The name comes from the Aymara "kota kahuana," which means "view of the lake" and was already in use during the Inca period.
According to Andean tradition, an indigenous man named Yupanqui carved an image of the Virgin Mary in the 16th century, which became known as Our Lady of Copacabana, and its cult quickly spread throughout the region. The devotion grew rapidly and spread throughout the world via colonial trade routes.
In the 18th century, trade and smuggling between the region of present-day Bolivia and Rio de Janeiro led to an image of the saint being brought to Brazil by "peruleiros" (informal smugglers). And in one of those twists of colonial banditry, some claim that the image that came here was the original and not a copy.
The power of Mithras and the change of name
Fulfilling the bishop's promise, the church was completely renovated in the mid-18th century and gained a guesthouse to accommodate pilgrims. With the direct intervention and financial contribution of Dom Antônio, the temple and the adjacent lands were integrated into the patrimony of the Archdiocese.
In the workings of the colonial system, this meant that the Catholic Church assumed legal, administrative, and economic control of that entire pointed coastal region. Administration ceased to be communal or informal and became directly accountable to the episcopal palace.
It was precisely during this period of centralization and expansion of the pilgrimage that the name Copacabana began to gain strength. The population that frequented the masses and the patron saint's festivities began to identify the entire surrounding sandy area by the name of the saint from the small church. Colonial historians and geographers agree, at least, that the cultural strength of the parish and the influence of the Archdiocese were decisive in the Bolivian term christening the beach, transforming the Andean word into a synonym for a Rio de Janeiro beach.
But then why do some say that it was Dom Antônio who named Copacabana?
The expression is, of course, a figure of speech. Dom Antônio did not preside over any formal naming ceremony for the neighborhood. But the bishop was the central figure in making the name "Copacabana" predominant. After Dom Antônio, deeply shaken by the storm, renovated the chapel and built a guesthouse, devotion to Our Lady of Copacabana grew enormously. The saint's name became ingrained in popular memory and spread to the beach, the village, and finally, the entire neighborhood. For this reason, even today historians attribute to the frightened bishop the merit, or the symbolic "paternity," of having "baptized" the region with the name it carries to this day.
Demolition
The little church that Dom Antônio renovated survived two centuries of history, but it didn't survive the First World War. Or, between us, the pretext that the war provided. The military logic was simple: the location of the church was the most strategic point at the southern entrance to Guanabara Bay, ideal for positioning heavy artillery.
The project for a fortification at that location dates back to the 18th century, according to the Army Historical Museum, but it was only made feasible at the beginning of the 20th century. The cornerstone was laid in 1908, and Fort Copacabana was inaugurated by President Marshal Hermes da Fonseca on September 28 of that year.
Before the demolition, however, the image of Our Lady of Copacabana was collected by the Tefé family, one of the most traditional in Rio, and taken to their residence in Corrêas, Petrópolis. In 1953, the image was transferred to a small chapel built within the Army's own premises, where it remains to this day as a silent testament to the devotion that began with a terrified bishop and a promise made under the roar of a storm.
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