Resiliência romeira: a promoção do turismo religioso no Santuário de Santa Cruz dos Milagres (Piauí)

Abstract

This thesis aims to understand the resilient devotional practices of pilgrims, co-opted by the planning of religious tourism policies in the Sanctuary of Santa Cruz dos Milagres, the main pilgrimage center in the state of Piauí. In the tourism sphere, resilience is forged by economic,political and sociocultural processes. Pilgrim resilience consists of the adaptive capacity of pilgrims, supported, above all, by speeches, feelings and practices that shape the subjective skills of the faithful and is linked to religious tourism promotion. This is qualitative research, descriptive and exploratory in nature. The data were described and interpreted based on material collected from the documentary survey, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and photographic records. The time frame starts from the 2000s, with the projection of ecclesiastical and tourist policies. As main results, devotional actions in constant movement can be highlighted, requiring an adaptive capacity in the face of continuous changes, innovations and external influences, which enable flexibility (resignification) of the old ways of carrying out pilgrimages and other devotional and tourist experiences. The pilgrim resilience, when woven from the demands of the tourist market, promotes the spectacle (performance), bringing different forms and functions to the sacred scene. The interpretations made it possible to establish the thesis that resilience in religious tourism integrated into tourist planning makes up the devotional experience of pilgrims, representing not only a response to crisis situations, but standing out as an intrinsic characteristic of devotions that adapt, resist and (re)organize through interrelationship with sacredness and place