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REQUALIFIED SPACE
Chicken coop where Sister Dulce welcomed the sick becomes ground zero of the Memorial in honor of the saint
Museum in honor of the Good Angel of Bahia will reopen to the public on November 5th
Published on October 25, 2024 at 2:08 pm
Memorial Santa Dulce dos Pobres Credit: Arisson Marinho/CORREIO
The chicken coop that housed the 70 sick people welcomed by Sister Dulce in the 1940s, next to the Santo Antônio Convent, in Salvador, is now the starting point of the guided tour of the Santa Dulce dos Pobres Memorial. After undergoing redevelopment that lasted approximately a year, the space of memory and preservation of the saint’s trajectory will open its doors to the public, free of charge until the end of the year, starting on November 5th. With a new name – previously, the place was called Memorial Irmã Dulce –, the cultural and religious equipment was completely transformed and adapted to welcome the elderly, children and people with disabilities.
This Friday morning (25), the museum’s news was presented. If before, those who arrived to visit the space went straight to the exhibition about Sister Dulce’s life, now they have to go straight to the back, back to where it all began. “It was our desire to have ground zero, because the chicken coop is very emblematic for the people who visit us and, especially, so that our professionals never lose their origins. We started from a chicken coop and became a large company with the same values as when we started”, says Maria Rita Pontes, superintendent of Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce (Osid) and niece of the saint.
“The chicken coop symbolizes the moment in which she [Santa Dulce] she decides to change completely, to embrace her vocation as a religious, to welcome the poorest. She, who was a teacher, felt God’s call to take care of the people who needed her most. This is what this Memorial shows all the time”, points out Maria Rita.
The chicken coop was renovated, gained a fence decorated with drawings of chickens and two never-before-seen photos of Sister Dulce taking care of the poor who passed through there during the ten years in which the space served as a shelter. Furthermore, the museum structure gained new accessibility features, such as access ramps, elevators, handrails, bilingual and Libras monitors. The place also has a new visitation itinerary, with rooms divided in chronological order of the important events in the life of the first Brazilian saint.
The new features also include a playful corridor that brings together objects that refer to the childhood of Anjo Bom da Bahia: representations of castor beans – a fruit that children threw at each other –, kites, marbles and the shirt of Ypiranga, the football club for which one she was rooting for. There is also a space to tell stories about her journey to sainthood. Other rooms have interactive screens integrated with audio devices, which narrate parts of Dulce’s life, never-before-seen photographs and a space to portray her devotion to Saint Anthony, including objects, sculptures and unusual stories that testify to this relationship.
Márcio Didier, manager of the Santa Dulce dos Pobres Sanctuary Complex and one of the creators of the Memorial’s museological reformulation, said that the idea of implementing the changes that resulted in the qualification work came about through an unusual story. In 2014, the Memorial was placed on the list of 8 museums to be visited in the world, in a list prepared by TripAdvisor. The nomination was received with surprise due to the limited collection that existed at the time, which sparked curiosity and a desire for expansion.
“We saw that what led us to the nomination was the way and emotion with which the monitors told her story [Santa Dulce]. So, we thought of a qualification process in which we would need to not lose this, but bring technology to the museum, audiovisual experiences and a children’s space to train tomorrow’s devotees through cartooning. It is a dive into the legacy and values she left for us, and which guarantees the continuity of this story”, emphasizes Márcio Didier.
If it depends on flight attendant Maru Marrero, the story of Santa Dulce dos Pobres will continue not only among Brazilians, but also among Europeans. She, who is Belgian and lives in La Hulpe – a municipality in Belgium close to the capital Brussels –, heard about the Brazilian saint for the first time in 2021. In 2022, during a tourist tour in the country, Maru decided to learn more about the history of the Angel Bom da Bahia and was enchanted.
“I visited the old Memorial and was impressed by this person who was so charismatic, a precursor and inspiring of values. I couldn’t believe that people, generations later, were still doing everything they could to help continue the works she did. It was then that I asked if I could volunteer to help and it worked out. Last year was the first time I was here volunteering and it was one of those things that changes our lives”, he says.
The change was so great that Maru returned this year to repeat the period of helping Osid. She was part of the Abraço Acolhedor team, an Osid project that welcomes patients and companions who arrive in Salvador from the interior of the state or from more distant regions, helped the Bazaar and other social actions, such as the distribution of toys to needy children in the last Children’s Day and the distribution of coffee for alcoholics.
Scheduled to return to Belgium this Friday, Maru states that he is leaving with the expectation of returning in 2025, but until then he wants to follow Dulce’s teachings. “She is an inspiration to me. She is a woman who was determined and showed us that everything is possible with love, affection, attention and dedication. This is her main message”, he concludes.
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