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Paper short abstract:

In this paper I investigate the relation between religious pilgrimages and the societal contexts where they are performed. In order to do so, I look at the pilgrimage of Sant'Efisio in Sardinia and explore how it transformed throughout the years and how these changes reflect, and are reflected by, socio cultural transformations in the wider community.

Paper long abstract:

The Festival of Sant'Efisio in Sardinia (Italy) is a series of sacred and secular events which orbit around the pilgrimage in honour of Saint Efisio, during which the statue of the Saint is carried and followed by devotees for a round trip from his church in the old town of Cagliari to the place of his martyrdom for a total of 80km, making it one of the longest pilgrimages in Europe. This pilgrimage originated after an official vow to the Saint made by the Municipality of the City Cagliari in 1652 in order to eradicate the plague which was decimating the population, and it has been performed every year, with only few exceptions, since then. Throughout the years the pilgrimage and its collateral rituals have undergone several changes which often reflected broader social, cultural and political transformations in Sardinia and beyond, revealing a deep interconnection between the sacred and secular realms. In this paper I draw upon performance and ritual theory (Turner 1967, 1969; Schechner 2003; Carlson 2004; Dolan 2005) to explore the transformative potential of the pilgrimage of Sant'Efisio, both at individual and societal level (Helms 1988). Inspired by Coleman (2002: 363), I employ the pilgrimage of Sant'Efisio as a case-study to explore wider issues such as the tension between tradition and social change, the overlap between sacred and secular systems and gendered experiences in the broader community beyond the pilgrimage time frame. I discuss the aforementioned issues through narratives, stories and experiences from my research fieldwork undertaken between 2018 and 2022. I believe this paper will offer new perspectives within the field of pilgrimage studies by also shedding some light on a religious and cultural phenomenon that, despite its growing popularity both among Sardinians and visitors, still remains underresearched.