Marian Kapuhenasa

Marian Kapuhenasa, officially the Church of the Saintly Spirit of the Virgin Mary, refers to a Christianised expression of the Kapuhenasa faith of the Loa, originating as an assemblage of Kapuhenasan and Catholic religious practices in Rumahoki; in particular, the series of religious movements that Kapuhenasa and Christian religious practice during the years of the Navidadian System in what's now southwestern Rumahoki. Marian Kapuhenasa works against the conventional understanding of Kapuhenasa and Christianity as two distinct religions, seeking out commonalities between both faiths and promoting an inclusive union of the two. Marian Kapuhenasa occupies a unique space in the demographics of Rumahoki; Rumahoki is often understood to be a predominately Christian nation, with Catholics spread all throughout the country, and with Protestants congregated in the northern Tainean states.

Rumahoki is religiously united in terms of Christianity, with the real division being over the specific denominations within Christianity. Catholics comprise almost two-thirds of the total population, with Protestants, both and Collegiate, making up twenty percent. Kapuhenasa, being a faith that's seemingly entirely foreign to the Christians, has historically been repressed by institutional means, thus forcing its practitioners to either convert or attempt to flee. However, many of these practitioners have instead attempted to bring forth religious harmony by fusing elements of both faiths.

There is very little done in studies pertaining to Marian Kapuhenasa, largely due to it being almost entirely concentrated in Kalanatoa and Na'aturie. Some of the biggest findings have been uncovered by specialists Dr. Elena Villa, Eva Martinez, Guillermo Garcia, and Professor Carmen Morales. Villa defines Marian Kapuhenasa as an "assemblage" of religious practice, stating that the underlying religious principles of Marian Kapuhenasa is that "to be a Christian alone is never enough to guarantee success in this world nor in the afterlife." As a result, Marian Kapuhenasa combines both Christian and Kapuhenasa practices. Marian Kapuhenasa has been described as a unique phenomenon in Rumahoki, reflecting Christianity's predominant position in the country's culture.

Name
Kapuhenasa comes from the term "taboo gardener". This may sound a little odd when translated in a literal sense, but a taboo, or kapu, refers to the prohibitions of certain concepts, essentially the Polynesian concept of rules and laws that work to prevent the degradation of universal divine energy, or mana. Thus when taken in the context of taboos being rules, the more appropriate translation would be "Sacred Law", and thus a more accurate translation for Kapuhenasa would be "Gardener of Sacred Law" in reference to the religion's function as the arbiters of divine will.

Marian comes from the name Maria, the Latin name for the, with Marian referring to things pertaining to the. When put together with Kapuhenasa, the name thus becomes Gardener of the Sacred Laws of the Virgin Mary in line with the religion's official name Church of the Saintly Spirit of the Virgin Mary.

Background
Prior to 1875, the lands belonging to what's now the Rumahokian states of Kalanatoa, Na'aturie, and Junu'urinia Ba'andasi-Navidadia were a part of the Loa Empire. The people living in the area were of the Kapuhenasa faith, itself having originated from the writings of the Anahuenna in the 16th Century and the teachings of the Kirivian Sufi mystic Saȳd Kamáv Istiklav before developing in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Loa in the area would soon find themselves in a period of anarchy in 1875 after the collapse of the Loa Empire.

In the midst of the chaos, groups of Delepasians would settle in what used to be the northeast corner of the Loa Empire, eventually establishing a republic known as Navidadia. These settlers would soon institute a series of institutional laws to suppress the Loa within their territory, which included forcibly converting them to Catholicism while stamping out the indigenous Kapuhenasa faith under pain of mutilation initially before it eventually turned into imprisonment for a certain amount of time.

Search for a loophole
The Loa, not wanting to just give up their faith while still understanding the gravity of the situation, began to look for commonalities between the two religions in hopes of finding a loophole where they can keep practicing their faith while at the same time placating the settlers by "looking Catholic". As a religion based on pseudo-matriarchal values, the Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary was an easy aspect to interpret from a Kapuhenasa perspective as was the idea of saints and angels acting as sort of guides for people. One major holiday celebrated by the Delepasians is the Day of Ancestral Remembrance, annually held for a couple days in September, with the idea of spirits of the dead returning to visit loved ones proving especially attractive to the Loa.

With time, the faith of the Loa people of Navidadia became acceptably Catholic to their overlords, thus allowing them to practice their faith unperturbed for the most part, though other means of cultural repression continued to occur up, even during the years of the Delepasian Commonwealth, until the Velvet Revolution in 1994. This new faith also had some unique elements not found in Catholicism, such as having two heads of faith instead of one, and even a ritual for selecting the two.

End of repression
The Velvet Revolution had an immediate effect on the treatment of the Loa. Overnight, the laws that perpetuated the repression of the Loa had vanished, thus granting them the full rights and privileges extended to the other peoples of the newly-reformed Rumahoki. These changes also granted the Loa two states of their own, those being Kalanatoa and Na'aturie, each ruled by one of their heads of faith, and thus had the right to determine their own laws so long as it doesn't conflict with the constitution.

Organisation
Like the Catholic Church, Marian Kapuhenasa follows an, led by bishops, here known as ilaseuasas or prophets. The ilaseuasas are those who have received the gift of serving as the messenger for a particular saint and thus have the right to a formal of governance within the church. There are three levels within the clergy: the prophates, composed of ilaseuasas who have authority over a ; the vicarate, composed of vicars (fikaros) ordained by ilaseuasas and who do their work within local dioceses or holy orders; and the reverendate, composed of reverends (referonas) who assist ilaseuasas and vicars in a variety of ministerial roles. Ultimately leading the religion is the Marian Ilaseuasas, two ilaseuasas with the gift of serving as messengers for the Virgin Mary herself. Their jurisdictions correspond over the Kalanatoa and Na'aturie, with the two holding joint jurisdiction over Junu'urinia Ba'andasi-Navidadia. There exists a variety of that function independently of any of these three levels, though some are subject to the authority of a local ilaseuasa. These institutes are almost always open to both male and female members, with only very few of them being exclusive to a certain gender. Furthermore, members of the laity may aid in certain liturgical functions during worship services. Uniquely, for a faith that incorporates elements of Catholicism, there are no gender restrictions within the clergy, though females are highly encouraged to join if possible.

Marian Ilaseuasas, and the smoke rituals
The hierarchy of Marian Kapuhenasa is headed by the Marian Ilaseuasas—currently Mother Joana and Mother Alisia, the former having been chosen on 19 April 1998 and the latter on 30 September 2002, both by a ritual of smoke. The office of the Marian Ilaseuasas is known as the head prophate. Marian Kapuhenasa holds that the Virgin Mary instituted the head prophate upon restoring the true faith through her messengers Mother Isabela'a and Mother Karamona. Directly serving the Marian Ilaseuasas is the Council of Prophets, the central governing body of the faith.

Like Takatta Loa, the Marian Ilaseuasas are also the heads of state of the two Loa states of Rumahoki, with Mother Joana serving as Kalanatoa's head of state, and Mother Alisia serving as Na'aturie's head of state. Because Marian Kapuhenasa exists only in Rumahoki, both these states are seen as linked with their respective heads of states' spiritual titles, and thus it's both as the members of the head prophate and as the heads of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie that the Marian Ilaseuasas sends and receives delegates to and from the national legislature of Rumahoki.

Following the death or resignation of a Marian Ilaseuasa, eight ilaseuasas are chosen by the Council of Prophets to take part in the ritual of smoke. Only ilaseuasas may be chosen as a Marian Ilaseuasa for a lay member may not have the proper gift to send and receive messages on behalf of a saint and thus would not be able to communicate with the Virgin Mary herself.

Virgin Mary as the Saintly Spirit
Under Kapuhenasa, the Saintly Spirit is the head of faith as well as the official temporal head of state of Takatta Loa. The introduction of Catholicism to the Loa of Navidadia brought to them the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, himself God in the flesh. The Loa have interpreted this as meaning that the Virgin Mary, having "given birth" to God and thus has a direct line of communication with him, is in fact the Saintly Spirit in the flesh, and that her role in the has redeemed women of. Because of this, the veneration of the Virgin Mary has been far higher in Marian Kapuhenasa than even in the Catholic Church.

Her status and role as the Saintly Spirit is recognised in the constitutions of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie which also designate her as the eternal ruler of the two states, with the Marian Ilaseuasas acting as de facto rulers on her behalf. This also has the consequence of the two states having the most strict in the world, with criticism of the Virgin Mary being deemed a grave kapu. Depictions of the Virgin Mary are very common in Loa households in Rumahoki, either as a portrait or a statue.