Como nasce um santo de cemitério? A devoção a Edmundo Pé de Ferro em Benjamin Constant - AM

Abstract

This dissertation presents issues related to the process of sanctification unofficial Edmundo "pé de ferro", the object of devotion of popular character in the municipality of Benjamin Constant-AM. The main objective of this project is to analyze how to build this devotion in the Amazonian context, describing how this process manifests itself and what are the components of a devotion named by the anthropological literature as ' marginal ". The focus of this study is the social and religious imagery experienced by subjects of research that yield bows to Edmundo, despite the indifference of the Catholic Church, from which stems the vast majority of his devotees, which served as interlocutors in the ethnographic work around the character in focus. Through the narrative of local residents, rebuild part of the story of Edmundo pé de ferro in Benjamin Constant, his brief life in this town and the plot that involved in a tragic death, which in the eyes of his devotees gives it supposed Holiness. The São Francisco Cemetery (also known as "old cemetery"), located in the Colony, was the central locus for the realization of this survey. It is where the tomb of Edmundo, place of worship for many devotees who elected this character as their protector. The data collected in that cemetery allowed me to assume that the central element that would support the religious imagery that was built around the memory and image of Edmundo, i.e. his process of "sanctification", would be the kind of death by which passed, or a death preceded by so much suffering. The idea of a death marked by martyrdom/sacrifice would be settling the bases for the recognition of Edmund as a popular Saint, or "Saint of Cemetery". Among other elements that support this kind of devotion, we highlight the practice of Ascend candles on Monday and the visits to the tomb of Edmundo, on the day of the dead. On the mentality of the devotees, the suffering of Edmundo is what leads to the climax in the spiritual plane and to the process of your Holiness, in his body, slow and gradual death, does generate the religious imagery of devotees the idea that he is a Saint and miracle worker. However, a Saint out of the heights of the official Church, this is "marginal". To his devotees, Edmundo is a Saint and miracle worker, and that's all that matters.