Zé Menino milagreiro: tragédia e devoção no catolicismo não oficial (Riachão, Jucurutu, 1937-2022)

Abstract

It reflects on the devotion to the miracle worker Zé Menino worshiped in the Riachão community, rural area in the city of Jucurutu-RN. The study has made use of the narratives of devotees, collected through interviews made during visits to the sacred place and analyzed in the light of Oral History methodology, in addition to the ethnographic study and observation of ex-votos. This devotion fits into the cults of unofficial Catholicism, since it is not intended for official saints, but for a subject who belonged to the studied community and, when he died tragically, he has been elevated to holy and worshiped as a miracle worker. In this sense, we use Lourival Andrade Junior's concept of sublimation to understand the process through which the miracle worker passes right after death, the status of sacred site that the place of his death receives, all this related to the debate about the sertões and the representations of a sertanejo religiosity. We will see José Batista Serafim – Zé Menino, his death and sublimation, and how a place of tragedy became a sacred space of faith, hope and miracles