Abstract
In the last decade of the 19th century, José Américo's family took measures regarding his schooling. Observing the family tradition of forming powerful priests in the state and the boy's apparent vocation for the world of letters, they decided to guide him towards the priestly life. The objective of this text is to understand how the project of the priesthood was conceived and lived by the family and by José Américo himself. For this purpose, I used the reflections of Pierre Bourdieu (2004) and Lev Vigotski (2009). Memoirs, ordination processes, and seminary examination records were consulted. We noticed that the boy experienced priestly formation, first among the experiences in his priest uncle's house, then in an institutionalized way in the seminary. Sometimes he took the lessons as violence to his body and his ideas, but sometimes he identified with what he was learning, achieving good grades in the exams.
Keywords:
religious education; first letters; seminar; José Américo de Almeida