Pay a promise and meet God…

Devoute suicide in the county of Ouro Branco/RN (1920 and 1952)

Abstract

The search for forgiveness of the sin committed against oneself, suicide, is found in the letters and scribbles left by the suicide bombers in the police proceedings of 1920 and 1952. Ouro Branco is one of the 25 municipalities that compose the region of Seridó potiguar, with a percentage of 64 suicide registries between 1920 and 2014. In only 2 police cases this concern is found with the discharge of Christian duties, which suggests a knowledge of the consequences preached by the Catholic Church and the convictions resulting from the act. Therefore, suicidal subjects ask family members to pay their debts to the saints or to pray for their post mortem lives. According to Agostinho of Hipona, Christian theologian of the fourth and fifth century, suicide faces the sixth biblical commandment of "thou shalt not kill," and so the practice of the act gained a negative connotation, due to its association with the term homicide.