San Baltasar, King Baltasar Cambá or San Baltazar is a
folk saint
Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints, but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the ''populus'', they are also called popular saints. Like o ...
of African origin, widely venerated in the coastal area of
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
in the province of
Corrientes
Corrientes (; Guaraní: Taragüí, literally: "Currents") is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12. It ha ...
, northeast of
Santa Fe and east of
Chaco and
Formosa. The worship of San Baltasar is considered a para-liturgical
cult, known as the Brotherhood of San Baltazar, since the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
has not canonized nor recognized Baltasar as a saint. San Baltasar appears as a crowned black man wearing a red robe or cloak and carrying a scepter or a staff.
San Baltasar's feast day is 6 January, when devotees dance and play music in his honor, most commonly
candombe
''Candombe'' is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed ''candombe'' in its Repres ...
. In
Concepción, Tucumán, Argentina, there are activities such as religious worship and musical entertainment offerings.
This place called the South Island of San Baltasar, is an architectural ensemble consisting of the church with the image of the saint. He is the unofficial patron saint of Fernando de la Mora, a town in Paraguay.
See also
*
Balthazar, one of the
Three Wise Men
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 190 ...
.
References
Notes
Bibliography
*Cirio, Norberto Pablo (2000). "Historical origins of the cult of San Baltazar in Argentina: The Brotherhood of San Baltazar and Animas (1772-1856)." Latin American Music Review 21 (2): 190–214. Latin American Music Review 21 (2): 190–214. Austin: University of Texas.
*(2002a). "Practice music in worship African origin to St Baltazar. The charanda of Stoned (Province of Corrientes, Argentina)." Revista Musical Chilena 197. Santiago de Chile: Universidad de Chile (in press).
Religion in Argentina
Folk saints
Argentine folklore
Afro-Argentine culture
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