O Santuário da Santa Montanha: um estudo sócio-antropológico sobre as aparições marianas em Guiricema – Minas Gerais

Abstract

The idea of creating Santa Montanha’s Sanctuary, and the village where it is located, originates from narratives about Saint Mary’s apparitions, based on reports of three children from Guiricema – a town located on the countryside of Minas Gerais state – in the nineteen sixties. This religious world, strictly based on Catholicism, was created by the people who lived in the surroundings of the hill where the sanctuary was built. Together, they left their homes and formed a new community, creating a world/cosmos ruled directly by Saint Mary and Baby Jesus themselves. This study analyses the construction of this peculiar world, based on Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman´s theory of the social construction of reality, considering it a process of human activity that allows us to develop and create a world, keeping it functional.