Tensões e disputas em torno da devoção “popular”: a cruz da menina em Patos (PB).

Abstract

Historically, the relationship between popular devotions and the official Catholic Church in Brazil have been permeated by tensions and disputes, due to the official Church aims to maintain its hegemony in the religious field. Popular devotion many times has been faced as a threat, although it is considered part of Catholicism and elements of official Church have been used by it, the devotion has its own logic and dynamism, which the Catholic clergy has no control. In this sense, taking into consideration the devotional universe from Patos (PB), devotion to the girl / Santa Francisca, it is aimed to analyze this relationship that is presented on the national scene and thus to make an approach that will privilege the voices of the interlocutors who from a mythic memory have been updating the devotion. According to the mythic narratives the devotion to the girl was created around 1923, among the reasons that made people consider Francisca a saint, we can highlight the miracles performed by her and the fact that she was brutally murdered also that the couple who were named as her killers had not been sentenced for being protected by a colonel of the time. These tensions are part of its own existence, the masses belonging to the universe of Catholicism still go to Mass and, nonetheless, make promises and prayers before the image of St. Francisca, light their candles and let their ex-votes, etc.. There is not an apparent marked polarization between popular and official, there is a set of distances and approaches that give life and movement to the Park. Devotion is alive.