page_title: Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish
section_title: The good fish
hierarchical_section_title: Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish / Summary / The good fish
context_page_description: The "Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish" is a sermon written by Portuguese Jesuit priest António Vieira, preached to the congregation at the Church of Saint Anthony in São Luís do Maranhão, Colonial Brazil, on 13 June 1654. It is Vieira's most famous work.
  It was preached in the context of the conflict between the colony's settlers and the Jesuits, who reiterated Pope Urban VIII's prohibition against Indian slavery. Three days after preaching it, Vieira secretly embarked to Lisbon to appeal King John IV for laws that would guarantee basic rights to Brazilian Indians, preventing them from being exploited by white colonists.
  The sermon comprises an elaborate allegory: borrowing from the familiar legend of his namesake Saint Anthony's preaching to the fish, Vieira uses the different kinds of fish as metaphors for men, drawing direct parallels between the dynamics between big and little fish and those between colonists and the Indians.
context_section_description: Praising the fish, Vieira compliments their ability to listen and not speak; their inability to convert matters not to the preacher since 
  "this is such an ordinary pain that custom makes it almost imperceptible". The fact that they cannot be domesticated means they have not been corrupted by men. Vieira goes on to list the virtues of particular fish:
  The Holy Fish of Tobias — represents preachers and their inner virtue; from the Biblical account in the Book of Tobit, the fish came to Tobias as an apparent threat but the Archangel Raphael instructed him to use the fish's gall to cure his father's blindness and his heart to cast away the demon Asmodeus
  The remora — a small fish that latches on to ships, holding them back; it is compared to the strength of the good preacher's words, arresting human passions and changing the course of sinners' lives
  The torpedo — an electric ray that is capable of emitting a shock into the body of a prey animal to stun it; it represents conversion
  The four-eyes — a fish with eyes above the top of the head and divided in two different parts, so that they can see below and above the surface; it represents the virtue of prudence, having sights set onto Heaven above but always mindful of Hell below
caption: Tobias and the Fish, c. 1640, by Andrea Vaccaro (National Art Museum of Catalonia)
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