Muriqui (also known as Vila Muriqui) is a district of the municipality of Mangaratiba, located within the Greater Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is part of the Green Coast. Highway BR-101 passes through the district. The district has a patron saint, the Blessed Virgin Mary (). Since the 1950s, the local parish has celebrated annually on the 27th of November, the date Catherine Labouré reportedly had a vision of her in 1830. Etymology The district was named after muriquis, a genus of spider monkeys. The name "muriqui" itself comes from a corruption of the word myraqui, of the Tupi language, with the alternates buriqui, barigui and baregui. According to Alcides Pissinatti, in "Management of Muriquis in Captivity" (2005): However, according to von Martius' glossary, the word comes from the Tupi words jemoroo ("to nourish"; muru, "nutrient") and aiké (a contraction of aikobê: "to have", "to exist"). History Colonial era Prior to 1567, all land that now belongs to Mangaratiba – including modern-day Muriqui – was part of the freguesia of Angra dos Reis, under the Captaincy of São Vicente. After that date, those lands became part of the (Royal) Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro. In 1568, the colonization of the region of modern-day Mangaratiba begins through the distribution of land to the Sá family. At some point before 1598 – the year came to Rio de Janeiro to take office as governor – finished building a new engenho (the fifth sugarcane mill of Rio de Janeiro). As per the recounting of Anthony Knivet: The engenho was known as Engenho of Saint Gregory (). According to Vieira de Mello, this engenho was located in Itacuruçá, the district which Muriqui was part of until the middle of the 20th century, and thus later became known as "Engenho of Itacuruçá" (). Additionally, Mirian Bondim claims that this engenho was located in the same place as modern-day Muriqui, and it is referred to by the Mangaratiba town hall as the first construction in Mangaratiba land. On 8 June 1652, D. Suzana Peixoto and her husband, Dom José Rendon de Quebedo, exchanged an engenho they owned in Irajá, known as "Engenho Fumaça", for the Engenho of Itacuruçá and some farms in Mangaratiba. Prior to this exchange, the governor of Rio de Janeiro Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides (son of and grandson of ) owned the Engenho of Itacuruçá. D. Maria de Alarcão e Quebedo