Nos passos do peregrino: turismo e religiosidade em Santa Cruz dos Milagres (PI)

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the festive triad in the city of Santa Cruz dos Milagres (PI) and the strategies of the political and ecclesial actions existing in the proposal to create a religious tourist destination. Santa Cruz dos Milagres is located in the state of Piauí, northeast region of Brazil and represents a religious center of popular Catholicism. To achieve this objective, the festivities were researched: invention of the Holy Cross, exaltation of the Holy Cross and meeting of the Saints, three important religious celebrations held in different periods. whose socio-religious dimensions constitute cultural, historical and economic foundations, potential to promote the city of Santa Cruz dos Milagres as a religious tourist destination. The qualitative approach was used to conduct the research, which involved bibliographic, documental and empirical research. The comprehensive method was used, using participant observation techniques, semi-structured interviews with representatives of the Church, public authorities and local community, in addition to applying a questionnaire with devotees and recording in a diary of Field. The analyses of the subjects ' statements were performed by means of descriptive and content analysis. These are three events, mainly by devotees that together with local residents and the endorsement of the Catholic Church, reupdate their sacred beliefs and rites that give legitimacy to the religious phenomenon. The results of the research point to the existence of political and ecclesial strategies aimed at the promotion of Santa Cruz dos Milagres, although these strategies are disjointed, act in different dimensions. The actions of the state are centered on the discourse of economic development, associated with tourism promotion. Above all, from the policy of regionalization of tourism undertaken from 2004, which disseminates the city as a religious tourist hub in Piauí. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church, also uses the discourse of religious tourism, to advance in its project of evangelization and legitimation in the sacred space of Santa Cruz dos Milagres, through the creation of symbols. As the construction of the new temple, which seeks to insert itself in this logic of modernization of the Catholic sanctuaries. The local community recognizes dependence on religious activity, since it stimulates local trade. Regarding the practices of devotees, permanences and changes were identified, through actions that incorporate new elements as sacred as tourism, capable of boosting tourism activity.