Devoting with the Feet: Motivations and Trajectory of the Pilgrims towards the Sanctuary of Fátima
Since the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fátima, in 1917, until the present day, thousands of people have been walking the path that leads them to what is called, in Catholic circles, the «Altar of the World». Much has been written about Fátima, but very little about the current practices of the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2017
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| In: |
Annali di studi religiosi
Year: 2017, Volume: 18, Pages: 97-106 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Since the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fátima, in 1917, until the present day, thousands of people have been walking the path that leads them to what is called, in Catholic circles, the «Altar of the World». Much has been written about Fátima, but very little about the current practices of the pilgrims from the moment they leave their homes and walk the distance that separates them from the Sanctuary of Fátima. However, the act of walking to Fátima is strongly conditioned by the motivations that underlie it, which is often a promise. This paper starts by contextualizing the pilgrims’ journey to Fátima within the historical and cultural landscape of the peregrination to sacred places. Then, based on anthropological fieldwork—which has consisted on the accompaniment of pilgrims from Porto to Fátima—it is sustained here, on the one hand, that the pilgrims who walk to Fátima, far from being part of a communitas, reveal deeply individualized practices to carry out this pilgrimage; and, on the other hand, that these pilgrims try to pay their promised great sacrifice with the least possible suffering. Thus, in this behaviour of «devoting with their feet», in which the road assumes a greater value than the Sanc-tuary itself, the encounter of the pilgrim with the image of the Lady of Fátima, in the Chapel of the Apparitions, marks not only the end of the fatigue and journey, but also the re-establishment of the balance in the believer’s relationship with the Lady of Fátima. |
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| ISSN: | 2284-3892 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Annali di studi religiosi
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.14598/ANNALI_STUDI_RELIG_18201708 |