Maranhenses em romaria: experiência e narrativas franciscanas em Canindé - CE

Abstract

This study intends to analyze, through an incursion for Oral History and field research, characteristics of the devotion to San Francisco of the Chagas of Canindé seeking to interpret practices of popular Catholicism present in the experiences of life and work of men from Maranhão. The celebration of San Francisco das Chagas takes place annually between the end of September and the first fortnight of October in the small and bucolic town of Canindé, located in the agreste of Ceará. On the occasion of the festivities, the city-sanctuary is visited by a public that varies between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 people, according to the organization's estimates, turning into a busy and overcrowded religious and commercial center. The sanctuary city is preparing to receive the pilgrims (as), who, for the most part, come from the states of Piauí and Maranhão. We try to make a dense description of the city sanctuary and the experience of the sacred in it experienced. Canindé represents a mosaic in which different and interesting experiences of devotion develop. The impact of the migration of Northeasterners to Maranhão during the 1950s and the work of Franciscan Friars in the Middle Mearim are important factors for the problematization and understanding of the spread of this devotion in the region of study. We conclude with the discussion of relations established between devotees and the devoted saint, aiming at the understanding of the meanings attributed by the pilgrims to such religious experience.