The members of Terreiro want Mother Stella's funeral in Salvador; companion announced the burial in Nazareth | Bahia

The children of mother Stella and members of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá terreiro, commissioned by her, want the body of ialorixá, died Thursday, at the age of 93 years is brought to Salvador, a city where the terreiro works. Graziela Dhomini, his companion, announced her funeral at 4 pm Friday in Nazaré, in the state of Bahia, where she lived with Mother Stella.

The day before is held in the city council of Nazareth since the morning of this Friday.

According to Ribamar Daniel, president of the Society of the Holy Cross of Afonjá, responsible for the maintenance of the territory, Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, Mother Stella must undergo rituals of camdomblé before d & # 39; 39, to be buried.

"The family wants the body to come [para Salvador] to do the obligations, the internal rituals, the precepts that nobody knows, we want the burial to be dignified," he said.

According to Ribamar, Mother Stella's sister and nephew took legal action to request that the body of the ialorixá be brought to Salvador, but no decision has yet been taken on it . The G1 could not confirm to the judge the information regarding the receipt of the action.

From G1, Graziela says that it was Mother Stella's willingness to be buried in Nazareth. She further stated that she had not received any court order. "It's just the body, it's in me, a person from Terreiro approached me and asked if I could sing for it, and of course, I would not deny it. not, but about the burial, I respect a wish of her, "he said.

G1 also contacted Graziela's attorney, who stated that he was following up the case, but had pointed out that no decision was made. Had been made. The report also attempted to speak to Mother Stella's nephew, but he did not answer the calls.

Stella's mother of Oxóssi left the terreiro in the Cabula neighborhood in the capital Bahia in 2017, and the act generated a conflict between Graziela and temple members. Since then, Mother Stella has lived in Nazareth.

Regarded as one of the largest ialorixá of the country, Mother Stella is born May 2, 1925 in Salvador. She was the fourth daughter of Esmeraldo Antigno dos Santos and Thomázia de Azevedo Santos.

At the age of 13, she was taken away by her aunt who raised her to the land of mother Aninha, founder of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá. A year later, it was launched in candomblé. In his youth, he always liked to read. She graduated as a nurse, a profession she had been practicing for 30 years. In 1976, at the age of 51, she was chosen by the Orixás to become the new leader of the Terreiro de São Gonçalo do Retiro. Mother Stella was the fifth ialorixa to order Ilê Axé Opó Afonjá.

In 1999, Mother Stella had the terreiro registered by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan).

In 2005, he received an honorary doctorate from the Federal University of Bahia (Ufba). Four years later, he received the same degree from the State University of Bahia. In addition, Mother Stella received the Order of the Knight, the State Government and the Order of Merit, Ministry of Culture, with the commendation Maria Quitéria, of the Salvador City Hall.

She was the first ialorixá in Brazil to write books and articles on Candomblé, a student and propagator of African religious belief. In 2013, she was unanimously elected to the Bahia Academy of Letters, where she was named President 33, under the patron of the poet Castro Alves.

The religious, cultural and social leader of his people has always condemned religious syncretism. For the mother of St. Stella of Oxóssi, candomblé is candomblé and Catholicism, Catholicism. He did not agree with the merger between saints and orishas.

Always concerned about preserving black culture, Mother Stella participated in conferences and gave lectures. In Ilê Ax Opô Afonjá, he installed the first open-air museum in a candomblé house, where you can see the clothes and objects used by the mothers of the house and the orixás.

The book "Mother Stella of Oxóssi – Estrela our, the simplest", work of the writer Marcos Santana, tells the story of the life of the ialorixá with poems, testimonies, criticisms and badyzes of some of his intellectual productions. The works were launched in 2014, in Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá terreiro.

The book is a collection that combines historical and cultural rescue with texts by several authors such as Edivaldo Boaventura, Muniz Sodro, Antonio Olinto, Jorge Amado, Fernando Coelho, Fr. Arnaldo Lima, Dorival Caymmi, Jorge Portugal, Menininha Gantois back, Shadow of Xango, Marcos Santana and Mother Stella herself.

In 2014, she was also honored by Flica, a literary festival held every year in the city of Cachoeira, in the Recôncavo Baiano. At the same time, he set up the traveling library by adapting a bus to transport books dealing with curiosities concerning all religions. He preached mutual respect and peaceful coexistence among all beliefs so that people could come closer by faith.