As pontes do sagrado no Maranhão: um estudo histórico-antropológico da romaria de São Francisco das Chagas de Canindé no tempo presente

Abstract

This study aims to analyze, through an incursion into Oral History and field research, characteristics of devotion to São Francisco das Chagas de Canindé seeking to interpret practices of popular Catholicism present in the life and work experiences of men and women from Maranhão. The celebration of São Francisco das Chagas takes place annually between the end of September and the first half of October in the small and bucolic city of Canindé, located in the countryside of Ceará. On the occasion of the festivities, the sanctuary city is visited by an audience that ranges between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 people, according to the estimates of the event's organization, transforming itself into a bustling and overcrowded religious and commercial center. The sanctuary city is getting ready to receive the pilgrims (as), most of whom are from the states of Piauí and Maranhão. We tried to build a narrative of the São Francisco pilgrimage based on two field experiences. In the construction of the narrative we seek to highlight, among other elements, the flow of bodies, objects, memories and affections that mark the pilgrimage. It is a qualitative research of historical analysis on popular religiosity, an interpretative study on the culture of the pilgrimage that motivated the interaction / conversation with pilgrims, clergy, tourists and people involved with the administration of the Canindé Sanctuary. Participatory observation was made about the reasons for the existence and existence of the sanctuary in its relations with the practices of devotion, investigating and historicizing this phenomenon from the perspective of the pilgrim himself.