In Salvador, religion is a major contact
point between Portuguese and African influences and, in the last 20 years,
Brazil's version of a North American-influenced Pentecostalism. Salvador was
the seat of the first bishopric in colonial Brazil (established 1551), and the
first bishop, Pero Fernandes Sardinha, arrived already in 1552. The Jesuits,
led by the Manuel da Nóbrega, also arrived in the 16th century and worked in
converting the Indigenous peoples of the region to Roman Catholicism.
Many religious orders came to the city,
following its
