TITLE:
Digital Celebration in Tourist Cybermarianism: The Connectivity of the Sanctuary of Fátima (Fortaleza, CE) during the Pandemic
AUTHORS:
Christian Dennys Monteiro de Oliveira, Camila Benatti, Ivna Carolinne Bezerra Machado, Eduardo Rodrigues Alves, Antônio Jarbas Barros de Moraes, Maria Aurislane Carneiro Silva
KEYWORDS:
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, Digital Devotion, Celebrations, Cyberspace
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.6,
June
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the potential and limitations of digital connectivity
in the devotion to Our Lady of Fátima in the celebrations held in her largest
sanctuary, in Fortaleza (capital city of the Northeastern state of Ceará, Brazil).
On the thirteenth of each month, the sanctuary usually gathers large numbers of
devotees and visitors, with an extensive schedule of masses and novenas, and
solemn processions on May 13 and October 13, which start at the Church of
Carmo, in the center of the city. The study intends to observe the context of
devotional changes in face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and seeks to highlight the
strategies adopted by the Sanctuary in order to keep up with celebrations,
guided by stricter sanitary protocols in the 2020 and 2021 editions.
Methodological procedures comprise monitoring broadcasts and digital
advertisement of these editions until March 2022, when sanitary protocols began
to be relaxed. Field and digital observations (by means of YouTube channels broadcasts)
point to maintaining a hybrid mode of spatial connectivity. To what extent does
this show a trend of hybridization of faith, correlating face-to-face (sanctuary and neighboring communities) and
remote (cyberspace) experience?
Messages and comments left by devotees in the main Parish/Sanctuary’s social media are also vital sources of research analysis. It was intended to
explore the most pertinent dimensions in this new context of devotional
connections; this may lead the way for comparative typologies with other
equally popular and appealing sanctuaries.