A devoção a Padre Libério: análise a partir da Geografia da Religião

Abstract

This study is about the devotion to Father Libério, religious phenomenon present in many towns in Minas Gerais. This devotion started during his priestly life which intensified after his death and with the miracles attributed to him. Father Libério was born on 30 June 1884 in Lagoa Santa, MG, and died on 21 December 1980 in Divinópolis, MG. The methodology used to analyze the devotion to Father Libério was the study of the biographical material about him, collected in the field, especially in Leandro Ferreira, MG, as well as interviews connecting this information to theoretical assumptions of the Geography of Religion. The theoretical framework of geographical works that use religion in Brazil is divided into two great areas: the first one refers to the sacred as something inherent in a religious man that, as he moves around, transfers this sacredness to the place where he lives spatializing religion. The second area refers to the duality between sacred and unholy, that creates sacred spaces and unholy ones in cities with great religious association. These spaces differentiate and relate themselves more profoundly in religious dates and pilgrimages. The proposal to analyze the devotion to Father Libério from structuring concepts of the Geography of Religion intended to show how contemporary religious practices can serve as a basis to the application of the knowledge related to the subject geography. Reaching this objective, it was possible to find that the religious man, in this case Father Libério’s devotee, living the sacred and/or searching for it, creates spaces that are geographically and hierarchically different, but not necessarily opposite.