The Ash Wednesday Sermons by Father Antônio Vieira and the Stoic-Christian art of dying.

Abstract

In this article, the Ash Wednesday Sermons by Father Antônio Vieira are discussed, emphasising the Stoic-Christian art of knowing how to die. This is because in these three sermons, centred on the biblical passage "for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:19), stoic precepts are evident - particularly from Seneca - merged into Christian doctrine, which seek through considerations regarding death, to guide the behaviour of the living. Thus, it is intended to demonstrate that in the Ash Sermons by Vieira, knowing death is an art, the principles of which must be learned and practised, having stoic philosophy as one of its main sources. If in this ars, as Seneca stipulates, "The whole of life is learning to die" (De Breuitate Vitae VII, 3-4), the acute ashes from Vieira's sermons are lights of death and shadows of life, to always be remembered: memento homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. Finally, the dust is a living and constant chastisement of death.