A Portuguese name locally used to designate certain pious exercises during Lent at Goa and other Catholic communities in India. They were introduced by Father Gaspar Barzeo to keep up the effects of his missionary work in India, and included a procession of flagellants who on every Friday assembled to sing the Litanies and to scourge themselves in sight of the Cross. Without the scourging and other objectionable features they exist today as a regular custom during Lent. At the end of the weekly sermon a scene from the Passion is enacted, followed by a procession.
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