Dimensões do lugar religioso em celebração: compreensão dos centenários marianos de Aparecida (Brasil) e Fátima (Portugal)

Abstract

A Catholic Sanctuary is characterized as a religious space, which has been the scene and witness of a religious manifestation or some remarkable kind of miracle, where groups of people flock by the desire to perpetuate their practice of faith and devotion. Beyond the religious aspect, this space perpetuates cultural, social, political, identity and symbolic dimensions. In this context, an impending framework was revealed: in 2017 the centenarians of the apparitions will be celebrated, completing 300 years in Aparecida and 100 years in Fátima. Currently, the two cities are centers of convergence and irradiation of the Catholic faith internationally known. The investigation will be developed in order to analyze the preparations of these jubilees in the religious, touristic and media fields. The study will be mediated by the understanding of networks and Marian devotional communications active in this process of preparing celebrations. To achieve these objectives the investigation relied on semi-structured interviews and participant observation in the cities of Aparecida and Fatima, where the main Parishes are located. Two Parishes will be analyzed as well: the Parish of Our Lady Aparecida located in Rio Claro (SP) and the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima located in Lisbon (Portugal), to understand if there is mutual actions between them and the main shrines in the preparation for the Centennial. However, in the specific case of the Parishes of Rio Claro and Lisbon, there was a resilience of the religious manifested by the faith experiences of his devotional communities.