Helighetens feminisering. Makt och mening i kulten av kvinnliga helgon

Abstract

The issue of how women are represented within religious systems have since long been a central concern in feminist religious studies. However, a narrow focus on female imagery in religion tends to obscure the nature of real women's active involvement in religious practice. This article discusses the cult of two different kinds of female saints in contemporary Portugal, both of which are ascribed sainthood in populär belief, but are denied such a status by the Church. These female saints serve as symbols in Portuguese Catholicism, but they can also be regarded as religious actors. Saint Alexandrina of Balasar is a "noneater", i e a woman whose sole form of nourishment is said to be the wafer received during Holy Communion, a religious behaviour that can be traced to the medieval period. Saint Maria Adelaide is a case of a populär cult of an incorrupt body. Such a cult may arise ifthe corpse of a deceased and buried person after a certain amount of time has not decomposed. I argue that the cults of these two types of saints are anchored in religious practices predominated by women. Femaledevotees play an important role in the cultural construction of the saints, and in upholdingtheircult. Although in different ways, the two types of cult challenge orthodox conceptions of sanctity as well as the structural power of the Church. The pilgrimage sites of these saints can be seen as expressions of a feminization of Christianity; the pilgrims worship an ordinary woman who becomes the mediator between God and humans on a site outside the control of the Catholic Church.