Abstracts Astronomy & Space Science

Páscoa e calendário : identidades fluidas e a definição de um Computus Paschalis no Sínodo de Whitby na Britannia do século VII

by Nathany Andrea Wagenheimer Belmaia

Abstract: In chapter XXV of book III of the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Bede recorded the Synod of Whitby, a debate over the setting of a date for Easter in Britannia, which took place in the year 664. On this occasion, the clergy representing Christianity from Columba, of Iona, defended their computus paschalis, against the ecclesiastics representing the Roman church, which was victorious at the time. In order to understand the importance of this Synod, the present work discusses from the beginnings of Christianity, the relationship with Judaism, the quarrel between Quartodecimans and Sundayists, in the 2nd century, the controversies in the conciliar discussions, of the 4th century, and an introduction to the first computus paschalis (calculations, relations with the calendar and astronomy, up until the dating proposed by Dionysius the Exiguus, in the 6th century). It also discusses several aspects related to the confrontational groups in Whitby, the Irish and Britannia monasticisms, and some socio-cultural specificities. Finally, Bede's account of the Synod of Whitby is analyzed, highlighting the main actors involved, the royal will and the political and religious scenario of Britannia inthe 7th century. Starting from the conceptions of identity and fluid identities, we hypothesized that the Synod of Whitby was the confrontation of two religious identities, which shared identifications, in an environment of fluidity, in which only one identity aspect prevailed in relation to the computus paschalis.