The event originated in the 1840s, when the farming couple Ana Rosa and Constantino Xavier found a medallion with the figure of the Holy Trinity in the former village of Barro Preto, starting a devotion movement to that image.

There is, on one hand, the novena and popular piety, marked by the route of the pilgrims through urban and rural roads - with emphasis on the parade of ox carts - and, on the other, non-religious programs, such as the installation of commercial stalls, gambling and amusement parks.

The history of the Feast of the Eternal Father dates back to the 1840s, when the farming couple Ana Rosa and Constantino Xavier found, on the banks of a stream in the village of Barro Preto, now Trindade, a medallion with the image of the coronation of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Trinity.

[citation needed] The discovery of the icon started a devotion movement to the figure of the Eternal Father, which gradually expanded and brought more faithful to the region where it was found.

[2][3] There were several transfers of ox carts coming from the interior of the state, transporting the sertanejos (people from the sertão) to the couple's house on Saturdays,[4] a mark of rural tradition already in the early years of the pilgrimage.

[6] That year, the celebration included masses and processions, in addition to the side presence of commerce, which sought to raise funds for the construction of a chapel where the medallion would remain exposed.

[9] With this intense movement of people, the medallion image wore out, and, in 1850, Constantino Xavier asked sculptor José Joaquim da Veiga Valle, from Pirenópolis, to produce a larger replica in wood, also displayed to the public.

[10] Gradually, the settlement of the village kept up with the growth in the number of inhabitants and the faithful, and the expansion of the pilgrimage, along more roads and trails in Goiás, calling more and more people to the annual celebration.

[11] The Feast of the Holy Trinity of Barro Preto, as it was known, progressed in the second half of the 19th century, under the presence of rites and superstitions and the tradition of walking through the Goias' lands, with harnessed animals, rosaries, crosses, flags, and followed by the manifestations of piety, a register of a popular Catholicism.

[citation needed] Noticing the spread of religious practices, including the feast itself, Bishop Joaquim Gonçalves de Azevedo promoted the construction of an even larger chapel in 1888, administered by a lay commission.

[12] The feast, bigger every year, witnessed the ritual solemnity and devotion around the image of the Eternal Father at the same time that commerce, gambling, singing and dancing took place outdoors.

[14] Barro Preto, an insignificant district, was only known for the many miracles that the simplicity of the people attributed not to God but to (...) that group of small images and until I installed the Redemptorist Fathers there, it was nothing more than a place where for twelve days helped merchants from all over the state of Goiás, cowboys, peddlers, prostitutes, circuses of horses and thousands of superstitions, devotees who went there to pay their promises, often made to obtain from God things against Christian morals: Revenge, separation of couples, adultery, etc.!

According to the bishop of Goiás at the time, dancing, gambling, drinking and prostitution that marked the popular festivities needed to be excluded from a Christian celebration and, for this to happen, an extreme institutionalization was required, which put at the head of the organization of the event official names from the church.

Father Francisco Inácio de Sousa was named by Don Eduardo to manage the chapel and the movements around it, and Redemptorist missionaries from the state of Bavaria, Germany,[16] were brought to Goiás after a trip to Rome by the bishop.

[21] Furthermore, the bishop's impositions also displeased local authorities and led to a direct confrontation between Don Eduardo and Colonel Anacleto Gonçalves de Almeida.

The Parish Church of Trindade, built in 1912, on the same site where the first chapel was erected with buriti leaves, becomes the main symbol of the pilgrimage, for being the arrival point of the pilgrims who come to the city.

Considering the exponential growth, religious authorities founded the Sons of the Eternal Father Association (Afipe),[29] in 2004, interested in grouping devotees and disseminating Christian practices through various projects, such as TV Pai Eterno.

Over the years, the route of the pilgrims continued to influence the urban organization of Trindade, with emphasis on the development of the eastern region in intense conurbation with Goiânia, the main path towards the feast.