Church of Santa Cruz - Recife - PE

A good place that recalls the history of Recife, however poorly preserved the buildings and the street around it.

A place of high risk of robbery as there is a lot of crime around.

Blessed place. Visit the house of God and Our Lady. Pray, thank and contemplate!

Church built in the middle of the 18th century, in 1716 by the Brotherhood or Confraternity of Senhor Bom Jesus da Via Sacra. It houses a rich collection of sacred images on its main altar, sides and in the sacristy.

It was a beautiful celebration with Father Cosmo, a mass full of grace and light.

Beautiful and surprising church. After the renovation was much better, the lighting highlighted the images and adornments very well. The Tridentine Mass said here extraordinarily was a unique experience.

Located in the Pátio da Santa Cruz, in the Boa Vista neighborhood, the Church of Santa Cruz was completed between the years 1725 and 1732. In front of the church there was a stone cross, but in 1821, the governor of Pernambuco Luís do Rêgo Barreto, ordered it to be demolished. Regarding the temple, the oldest historical record that exists is from the third decade of the 18th century. It is the Brief Pontifical of Pope Clement XII, of January 7, 1732, granting plenary indulgences to the Brotherhood of Senhor Bom Jesus da Via Sacra, "which was to be canonically erected by the ordinary place, in the parish Church of the Holy Cross, from the place of Boa Vista, of the diocese of Pernambuco, under the invocation of the same Santa Cruz, called the Via Sacra ". There is another record that, at the request of a Jesuit missionary - Father Gabriel Malagrida -, the governor of Pernambuco, Henrique Luís Pereira Freire, on September 23, 1742, granted a license in order for him to build a retreat for women, next to the Church of Santa Cruz, in Boa Vista. However, there is no information as to whether such collection was made. The Church of Santa Cruz has a single tower on its left side. In it, the following Brotherhoods are erect: Brotherhood of Senhor Bom Jesus da Via Sacra, Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora do Perpétuo Socorro, and Brotherhood of Senhora Santana. Except for the altars of the litany and the chancel, all the other ornamental carvings were the work of the master carver Antônio Basílio de Oliveira, at the end of the 18th century. Although the temple is modest, it served as a parish until 1793, the year in which the Blessed Sacrament was transferred to the church of Boa Vista - the current Igreja Matriz da Boa Vista - whose construction was not yet completed at that time. Until 1920, on the last Sunday before Easter, the Encounter procession was held in the Pátio da Santa Cruz. According to a chronicler who lived at the time, in that procession, the anguished mother's walker met the suffering son's walker. When the two walkers came together, the procession ran through the streets of the Boa Vista neighborhood. The Patio da Santa Cruz, in turn, was a very familiar street and well known by the people of Recife. The religious feasts of Nossa Senhora do Perpétuo Socorro and Nossa Senhora de Santana were held there. These two Brotherhoods continue to maintain a chaplain there for the exercise of all religious acts. Church parties, however, take place every August. The Boa Vista neighborhood, in particular, represented one of the cleanest and most secluded places in Recife. In addition to processions, almost all carnival blocks, maracatus, caboclinhos used to pass through it, among other manifestations existing in northeastern folklore. Rosário da Boa Vista was a strictly family street, with sidewalks and windows full of people at night, which leads to the Pátio da Santa Cruz and Rua da Conceição, the street where the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário was built. At the time of her adolescence, recalls the author, one of the great challenges of youth during Carnival was to shake hands with Dona Santa, the oldest and most well-known mother of saint in Pernambuco. Constantly open, and always clean and preserved, the Church of Santa Cruz, even without the splendor of the 19th century and its famous processions in Lent, usually serves as a stage for some non-religious events, such as concerts of classic music.

Very beautiful church! And Father Cosmo's masses are perfect! You feel that God is there! Incredible.