“Vivas ao santo padroeiro das chuvas”: (re)significações religiosas no culto a São José, Pombal-PB (1950-1980).

Abstract

Brazilian "popular" religiosity constantly presents us with questions to be investigated and problematized, which is perceptible through the studies of Hoornaert (1991), Souza (2009) and Andrade (2010). This paper aims to analyze the religious (re) practiced through the "robbery of the saint", a sacred tradition that is part of the cult of Saint Joseph in the in the city of Pombal-PB, in the period between the 1950s and 1980s. research offers new contributions to the analysis of religious phenomena in Brazil. By means of the short and timid speeches of rural dwellers, we enter into the perceptions of the faithful in relation to his daily life and his devotion to the patron saint of the rain. We could see how the religious practice around this saint is linked to sensibility and vision of the world of the Pombalan sertanejo, producing (re) diverse meanings to the sacred. We also argue that the relationships that the tradition of the robbery of St. Joseph establishes with the daily life produces diverse representations and a religiosity characteristically local.