Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

:Consuming Visions: Mass Culture and the Lourdes Shrine.

2005; Oxford University Press; Volume: 110; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/ahr.110.4.1262

1937-5239

Katrin Schultheiss,

Cultural Identity and Heritage

For nearly a century and a half, the French Pyrenean village of Lourdes has welcomed a steady stream of pilgrims and tourists from around the world, all drawn to the famous grotto where, in 1858, the fourteen‐year‐old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have had several visions of the Virgin Mary. The majority of visitors now, as a hundred years ago, are desperately ill, seeking to avail themselves of what they believe to be the miraculous healing powers of the waters that bubble up from the spring outside the grotto. But the town of Lourdes itself seems to belie its sacred status. The streets are lined with “countless piety shops selling bottled Lourdes water, mass‐produced religious articles, and an enormous variety of novelty items—from shrine T‐shirts to Mother‐of‐God bottle openers” (p. 1). This seeming contradiction—the jarring juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane—lies at the heart of Suzanne K. Kaufman's fascinating and thought‐provoking book.