Priest

For other uses, see Priest (disambiguation)

Priests can ask for confession or perform ceremonies such as weddings.

"The Heart is indeed a source of power. Every day, the temple priests renew the illusion spells. They are very strong, you'll see what they're like when we get there. The priests perform the spells, they say the chants, but the Heart provides the power that makes them work."

―Amenirdis to Jack Sparrow

A priest or priestess was a title held by an individual authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially between humans and one or more deities.

History

"Besides... didn't those Egyptian priests have magical powers? You want to talk about curses, mon ami..."

―Christophe-Julien de Rapièr

The voodoo mystic Tia Dalma was also described as a priestess.

Tia Dalma was a renowned voodoo or hoodoo priestess. When the crew of the Barnacle visited New Orleans, an albino Cajun attempted to sell the eye of a dead voodoo priest to Arabella Smith, but without success.

A group of priests built a church deep in the jungles of the island of San Silvestre, not far from the shores of the dreaded Los Pesadilla river. Over the years all the priests fell prey to the jungle predators. After losing contact with the priests, the Spanish colonial authorities sent a company of conquistadors to find out what happened with them. When the conquistadors reached the church they found just a ruin full of skeletons and infested with poisonous snakes.

Sri Sumbhajee devoted much of his life to learning the serene and simple ways of the priesthood, but he left all that behind and became a pirate because vegetarianism was too hard for him.

When the Church came to Isla Cruces, they brought salvation, but also disease and death. One after the other, the priest had to bury everybody, which drove him mad enough to hang himself. The skeleton of the legendary hanged priest would still be found hanging at the Church during the search for the Dead Man's Chest.

In 1751 an elderly priest accused Carina Smyth of practicing witchcraft and asked her is she had anything to confess before she died. Later, on the island of Hangman's Bay, a priest performed a wedding ceremony between Captain Jack Sparrow and Beatrice.

Behind the scenes

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's early screenplay draft for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, when Captain Barbossa tells his ghost story about the treasure of Isla de Muerta, he spoke about how Cortés was given the Aztec gold by a high priest, only for Cortés to continue his slaughter. The priest, with his dying breath, called on the power of the blood of his people, and put a curse on the gold. However, the "high priest" was omitted by the final version of the film.

By 2006, both priest and priestess would first be mentioned in official media released around the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Tia Dalma was described as a voodoo priestess according to the reference book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide, later reprinted in the 2007 expanded edition The Complete Visual Guide, as well as at least one promotion guide for Dead Man's Chest. The legendary hanged priest of Isla Cruces appeared in Dead Man's Chest, with a detailed backstory featured in the film's junior novelization. In the 2007 book The Pirates' Code Guidelines, Tia Dalma was described as a hoodoo priestess.

Appearances

• The Price of Freedom
• Mother of Water (In flashback(s)) (Appears as a corpse)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization) (First appearance) (First identified as priest)
• The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide (First identified as priestess)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
• The Pirates' Guidelines

External links

• Priest on Wikipedia