Kimpa Vita - Call To Mission

Call To Mission

Beatriz went to live among colonists sent out by King Pedro IV, one of several rival rulers of Kongo, to reoccupy the ancient and now abandoned capital of São Salvador. There was a great deal of religious fervor among these colonists who were tired of the endless civil wars in the country, and many had become followers of an old prophet, Appolonia Mafuta, who was preaching that God would punish Kongo.

During an illness in 1704 she claimed to have received visions of St. Anthony of Padua, and when, as she reported to Father Bernardo, she died and St. Anthony entered her body and took over her life. She began to preach, and Appolonia Mafuta supported her, claiming that she was the real voice of God. From that point onward, she believed she had a special connection to God, among other things, she died each Friday and spent the weekend in Heaven talking with God, to return to earth on Mondays. While in this state, she learned that Kongo must reunite under a new king, for the civil wars that had plagued Kongo since the battle of Mbwila in 1665 had angered Christ. She was ordered to build a specific Congolese Catholicism and unite the Congo under one king. She destroyed "idols", the various Kongo Nkisi or charms inhabited by spiritual entities, as well as Christian paraphernalia. When she took her message to King Pedro IV, he considered it, but refused to hear her. She then went to visit his rival João II at Mbula (near the Congo River close to modern Matadi), who also refused to hear her. However, in short time she was able to gather a significant number of followers and became a factor in the struggle of power. Her movement recognized the papal primate but was hostile against the European missionaries in Congo.

While she was in São Salvador, which she and her followers occupied in 1705, she built a special residence for herself in the ruined cathedral, and also called the formerly ruined and abandoned capital to be reoccupied by thousands of mostly peasant followers. However, she soon won noble converts as well, including Pedro Constantinho da Silva Kibenga, the commander of one of Pedro IV's armies sent to reoccupy the city. Since he chose his devotion to Beatriz as an opportunity to rebel, Pedro IV, who had been guardedly neutral to her, to decide to destroy her, all the more as his own wife, Hipolita, had become an Antonian convert.

Beatriz sent out missionaries of her movement, called Little Anthonies, to other provinces. They were not successful in the coastal province of Soyo, where the Prince expelled them, but they were much more successful in the dissident southern part of Soyo and Mbamba Lovata, which lay south of Soyo. There they won converts, especially among partisans of the old queen Suzana de Nóbrega. Manuel Makasa, one of these partisans also became an Antonian and moved to São Salvador.