In the year of the Amazon Synod, we wish to recover the memory and testimonial of Florentino Zabalza, Augustinian Recollect and Bishop of the Prelature of Lábrea (Amazon, Brazil) from 1971 to 1994, who left his memoirs that are now offered to all audiences, for the first time, through AgustinosRecoletos.org.
The original book has fifteen chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion. He dedicates the first ones to a detailed description of the Mission of Labrea itself in its general aspect: where it is, how many people live there, who are the missionaries, the situation of vocations, the criteria and urgency of the pastoral plans, the reality of the base Communities…
Three of the chapters are dedicated to events, and each one of them describes one of the events carried out by Zabalza in a kind of diary for each of the three, with the visits made each day.
In the rest, the author focuses first on the human geography of the mission, beyond the pastoral task itself: the rubber tappers and the Indians; and then also in Nature: the Purús River, the importance of cassava, the fauna, the flora, the flood that every year allows a new cycle of life in the jungle…
We have chosen seven of these chapters for this anthology. In the case of the chapter on events, we have in turn summarized it.
NEXT PAGE: A. Purus River
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