The Reverse Pilgrimage. The Journey of Relics through National Catholic Spain, 1947–1963
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69791/rahc.300Keywords:
Relics, Pilgrimage, National Catholicism, Cold War, Catholic ModernityAbstract
Between 1947 and 1963, following the successful transnational devotional model of the pilgrim Virgin of Fatima, there was a massive mobilisation of relics in Spain which, instead of being worshipped in their shrines, took advantage of advances in transport to go on pilgrimage ‘by themselves’ in an attempt to reconquer the spaces of increasingly secularised societies. These rituals combined the modernity of the aeroplane and the popularisation of the car with the vindication of saints who harked back to the empire and reinforced Franco's historicist narratives. They also became performances of National Catholicism and symbolic tools for diplomatic positioning on the horizon of the Cold War.
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