Case file · Folklore / legend
The footprints of Sumé
In 1549 the Jesuit Manuel da Nóbrega wrote from Bahia that the Indigenous people spoke of Sumé, a bearded culture hero who had taught them farming and left his footprints in rock. The Jesuits took him to be the apostle Saint Thomas.
1549 CE · -12.97, -38.51 · status: legend
The account
Footprint-marked rocks credited to 'São Tomé' were pointed out along the coast and inland, and the name survives in places such as São Thomé das Letras in Minas Gerais. The legend was tied to the Peabiru trail, which the Jesuits called the road of Saint Thomas.
The sceptical view
Historians read the story as a Jesuit reinterpretation of a Tupi culture hero to fit Christian history.