Rituais fúnebres da Igreja Católica de rito Ucraniano em Prudentópolis-PR

This research aims at analyzing the way the Catholic Church of Ukrainian Ceremonial in the town of Prudentópolis, Paraná, works out funeral rituals and applies them to their descendents. It intends to understand the culture of Ukrainian descendents, mainly with regards to the way they represent death through a religious ritual, and the way they establish relationships with the supernatural from funeral rituals, which entangle prayers such as “Panaheda” and “Parastás”. These prayers correspond to practices by means of cultural manifestations. From this point of view, rituals that are usually performed in funerals of Ukrainian descendents have been studied. An analysis of the hymns was made necessary, as well as of the bibliographical source and printed ones, like the Magazine “Missionar” (Missionaire), which is a monthly publication, and the newspaper “Praciá” (Labor), published bimonthly. They are both published by the Basilian priests in Prudentópolis, and they both contain pages addressed to dead people from the community of Ukrainian descendents. The methodology of Oral History has also been used through interviews with religious people from the Catholic Church in Prudentópolis. This approach was one of the ways found to study the rituals that are still remembered in memory of their ancestors and possible discontinuities of the Ukrainian culture. Taking the use of Oral History as a starting point, testimonies, memory and recollections have been used, with the aim of analyzing how the Church sees the role of funeral rituals. A lot of rituals are well-known by the Ukrainian descendents and our purpose was to analyze which ones are still present nowadays, and the ones which have been changed.