Paper short abstract:

Drawing from social theories of pilgrimage and space and based on fieldwork (2004-2005) at the shrine of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Puglia, Italy, where the tomb of Padre Pio is located, this paper illustrates the important role of spatial structures in the construction of the sacred.

Paper long abstract:

Eade and Sallnow (1991) propose we see pilgrimage sites as 'religious voids', deriving their power not only from their own religious significance, but also from their character as a platform able to accommodate the different and often conflicting meanings and practices that officials and pilgrims alike bring to the shrine . While agreeing with Eade and Sallnow on the issue of multiple discourses, Coleman and Elsner (1998) revise the idea of the 'religious void', stressing that this, "[…] is in fact full- crowded with material props, holy objects and […] pilgrims" (ibid:49). Drawing from De Certeau's theories on everyday practices, in this paper I will illustrate the role of the material and spatial context of pilgrimage in the construction of the sacred, making use of ethnographic data gathered during fieldwork at the site of Padre Pio's tomb, the shrine of Santa Maria delle Grazie. In the first part I will argue that the shrine's managers are able to promote an official discourse about the sanctity of Padre Pio through the organization and symbolic investment of the shrine's spatial structures, guiding both the movement of the shrine's visitors and their readings of the site. In the second, I will argue that despite their disadvantageous position in the process whereby the sacred is constructed, the shrine visitors are able to communicate their own views, through the consumption, utilization and appropriation of the shrine's structures, re-defining at times through their devotional practices officially produced meanings.