in the Ethiopian Synaxarium, either on her own, or within the life of Saint Matthew. Historical veneration Spain The Carmelites of Cádiz, Andalusia, had a devotion to Santa Ifigênia. In Cádiz, African blacks organized their own religious association, the "Confradía de Nuestra Señora de la Salud, San Bello y Santa Ifigênia", formed in El Puerto de Santa María in 1575. From Cádiz, her devotion spread to Portugal and from there to Brazil. Brazil The Brazilian-born priest José Pereira de Santana devoted a definitive, two-volume work to Elesbaan and Ephigenia, published respectively in 1735 and 1738 at Lisbon. He considered them the two pillars of African sanctity and refashioned them as saints of his own Carmelite order. Elesbaan represented the triumph of Christianity over Judaism in the person of Dunaan, while Ephigenia stood for the early, voluntary acceptance of the Gospel in Africa. A "Venerable Brotherhood of Saint Elesbão and Saint Efigênia" was founded in Rio de Janeiro on May 7, 1740, by free black slaves from Cape Verde, Coast of the Mine, São Tomé Island, and Mozambique. The cult of those two Saints is believed to have been brought by the slaves themselves. Black brotherhoods in Roman Catholic societies in the New World relied upon a few black patron saints, including Santa Efigenia, Santo Antonio de Catagerona (d. 1549), and Sao Benedito (d. 1589). Saint Iphigenia was also honored in joyous religious festivals and processions. According to Brazilian sociologist and anthropologist Gilberto Freyre, writing in 1922, "the festival of Saint Ephigenia, a sort of black Madonna, was enjoyed to the utmost by the colored folks, whose "consciousness of kind" was ably aroused by the priests." On November 20, 1995 Brazilians observed the 300th anniversary of the death of Zumbi of Palmers, the last ruler of Palmares, regarded as one of the first freedom fighters of the Americas. In Belo Horizonte a procession of congados (pt) took place on the evening of November 23, 1996, honoring Nossa Senhora do Rosario, Saint Benedict the Moor, and Saint Iphigenia with processions of precision marching, singing, dancing and the use of percussion instruments. The combined reverence for the Catholic saints and the performance of African ritual elements are evidence of the co-existence of Catholic religious traditions and the preservation of an African cultural memory in Minas Gerais. Peru The diaspora of Santa Efígenia from Ethiopia to the Americas was part of the dispersal of